Re: gnat-3.10

[Ronald Cole <ronald@ridgenet.net>]

dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
> Well I guess Ronald finally understands the GPL :-)

Yes, Stallman left a hole in the GPL big enough for you to drive
your truck through and set up a toll gate.

> In practice this scenario is of limited likelihood, and that is why it
> has not happened in practice. If one charged "big bucks" for the enhancements
> you had made, and if companies were willing to pay the big bucks, then an
> obvious thing happens:
> 
>    1. If you charge say $1 million for your wonderfgul enhancements
> 
>    2. And lots of companies are willing to pay $1 million
> 
>    3. Then someone will buy it for $1 million
> 
>    4. And undercut your business by selling it for the bargain price of 
> 	say $200,000

This assumes that the company that paid big bugs for a solution is
willing to "burden" themselves with the GPL's redistribution
requirements in order to recoup their costs.  There are many other
less-painful ways to recoup costs that do not benefit free software,
and so I think it's likelihood isn't as limited as you appear to
think it is.

> But as I have said all along, there is nothing that requires you to 
> distribute something you do under the GPL. One of the freedoms it confers
> is the freedom to distribute your work to whomever you please. The
> ultimate hoarding that can occur is if someone makes wonderful software
> and keeps it to themselves completely, but no one in the GNU world thinks
> for a monment that this should be prevented.

It's your choice to distribute your work under the GPL.  Once one
chooses to distribute their work to person-A under the GPL, one should
not be allowed to say "no" if person-B asks for a copy.  That is why
Richard wrote the following: "Thus, there's no requirement to make a
public announcement of a source release to accompany the binary
release, but you may have to provide the sources to any number of
people other than those who got the binary directly from you, if they
request it."  This is just a reiteration of the Kantian philosophy
that is supposed to be embodied in the GPL.

All I would like is a provision in the GPL that prevents people from
doing what you did.  Perhaps I can convince Richard of the importance
of including his statement in the GPL before gcc-2.8 is released.

> Now if Ron would put his energy into providing free software, rather
> than trying to get hold of 3.10 before we consider it ready for
> public release, that would be more helpful.

You yourself said that 3.10 is your "current production release".  Do
your customers know that you consider that it's not even ready for
public release?  And why would I want to provide free software to the
world under a licensing agreement that makes it less-than-freely-
available to everyone?

> But I guess the communistic view always appeals more to those who
> need what they do not have, as opposed to those who have what they
> do not need :-)

It sure does.  That's why you are using the gcc backend instead of
writing one yourself.  The GPL loophole appeals to your sense of
greed.  If you really were to "walk the walk", you wouldn't say no to
my request for a copy because you would be making your money just
charging for support.  I guess you're afraid of free market
competition.

Besides, Communism forbids the ownership of property, so I think you
meant to say "socialistic view".  Regardless, use of the GPL on one's
work is voluntary and is thus libertarian.

-- 
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