Mandrake and the proprietary license

[Georg C. F. Greve]

 || On Tue, 17 Dec 2002 14:43:01 +0100
 || Jan Wildeboer <jan.wildeboer at gmx.de> wrote: 

 jw> Can Mandrake really do this?
 jw> http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/mnf/license
 jw> ...
 jw> How is this possible with GNU/Linux?

It seems this is indeed legal as they only seem to be dual-licensing
code they have the Copyright in.

I must say that I am worried about this development and consider it a
mistake. Also it furthers misconceptions about Free Software that
Mandrakesoft should help disspell, not spread.

Calling it "Commercial License Agreement" is the old beginners'
mistake about commercial Free Software. A more suitable name would
clearly be "Proprietary License Agreement."

Instead of offering an extended service contract with more support and
guarantees for their Free Software package they require companies to
buy proprietary software in order to get the support they need in a
commercial environment, it seems. 

This comes awfully close to educating customers that you cannot get
proper services for Free Software.

Regards,
Georg

-- 
Georg C. F. Greve                                 <greve at fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe	                 (http://fsfeurope.org)
GNU Business Network                        (http://mailman.gnubiz.org)
Brave GNU World	                           (http://brave-gnu-world.org)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 258 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/attachments/20021218/347e69da/attachment.sig>