From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: a07f3367d7,c92999d3d36edb6c X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,public,usenet X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news2.google.com!postnews.google.com!j12g2000vbl.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: Ludovic Brenta Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: MinGW Ada compiler licence question targeting commercial Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:56:06 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: <01527aaf-991b-447b-a516-7dbe6b345650@j20g2000vbp.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 153.98.68.197 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: posting.google.com 1245866166 28247 127.0.0.1 (24 Jun 2009 17:56:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:56:06 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: j12g2000vbl.googlegroups.com; posting-host=153.98.68.197; posting-account=pcLQNgkAAAD9TrXkhkIgiY6-MDtJjIlC User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009012111 Red Hat/3.0.6-1.el5 Firefox/3.0.6,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:6599 Date: 2009-06-24T10:56:06-07:00 List-Id: anon wrote on comp.lang.ada [GPL Version 3] > Subparagraph (6.b) does not allow anyone without right from Adacore to se= ll > any part of GNAT or its tool suite, except for maintaining, downloading a= nd > compiling the program. And that price must be no more than a "reasonable > cost" for someone to perform those task! No, the "reasonable cost" applies to the sources only, and is on top of the unlimited price one can charge for the binaries. The price for the binaries of GNAT may be 10**6 EUR and the price for a CD-ROM containing the sources could be 1 EUR. This would respect the GPL. > Also, "Corresponding Source' may be omitted in the case of where the sour= ce > would cause a "Patent Infringement" so giving a compiled object module ma= y > be required. Another case is where the software accesses libraries that h= ave a > national security concerns. Like using a "Cryptographic Module" or librar= y that > might be available to one country but not all. =A0 =A0 As I understand this, if you cannot convey the source code due to patent infringement, then you cannot convey the object code either; this means that you cannot convey the software at all. > Plus, businesses understand that the cost of a software engineer to downl= oad, > compile and maintain the source code is too expensive. They prefer the > initial system to be compiled on a CD/DVD with printed documentations. This is true. A consultant or company could therefore make a living selling inexpensive prebuilt binaries to customers (i.e. spreading the engineering costs between customers). Since AdaCore only distribute sources of some of their software (e.g. PolyORB or GtkAda), there is a market oportunity for someone to sell prebuilt binaries to interested customers (with sources, of course, in accordance with the license). -- Ludovic Brenta.