My alternative busines model

[Marcus Brinkmann]

On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 07:33:28PM +0100, Niall Douglas wrote:
> Only if the copyright holder has set a price. If they said it's zero 
> cost, it becomes like BSD. If they set a price of 100 billion Euro, 
> it becomes very like GPL.

Ah, good that you mention that (I read it on the web page, but forgot about
it).  This is wrong.  The GPL allows you to exploit the software
commercially as much as you want.  That is one very important aspect of Free
Software:  You are allowed to make a profit out of it, without royalties or
anything.

You can take my GPL'ed program and sell it for 1,000,000,000 euro, without
even asking me.

> > Where is the practical problem?  First, it means that if I can not
> > reach the copyright holder (ie, he ignores me, or he is deceased, or
> > just became a juggler in a chinese circus, or whatever), I am not
> > allowed to copy for charge at all, until the copyright expires.
> 
> No, I explicitly give a month for the holder to reply. If they don't, 
> you can carry on regardless though the copyright holder has the right 
> to retroactively apply for their royalties. Here's where it gets 
> complex, because at this point the law really needs to come in with 
> adjudication services.

I missed that part.  I can imagine that this would be way too uncertain for
anything to be used in the real world.
 
> No it's not what free software needs but then I do think free 
> software is 98% best for the industry. It is, however, very much what 
> proprietary needs whilst keeping compatible with free software. I 
> also think it provides the entrepreneurial force missing with free 
> software.

"compatible"?  It's not compatible with free software.  It's something
completely different!  If you mean that the changes in law that would be
required to put this into effect would be compatible with free software,
then I am not sure, but it would be pure speculation anyway.

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    marcus at gnu.org
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
Marcus.Brinkmann at ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/