RE: Economics and the GPL

> On the contrary, when the GPL was designed, the "free market" had lead
> to a situation where almost all software was licensed in a 
> way that left
> no freedom at all for the licensee. Take your time to read 
> your MS word
> license (or whatever other commercial software you have) again and
> realize what "freedom" this license grants you. Often you are not even
> allowed to make a backup copy, let alone share the software with
> friends, improve it, ... 

Well. First of all most restrictions of that kind is null and void in
most parts of the world. Especially the right to backup it and to
improve it (or rather adapt it for whatever purpose you intent to
use it for).

As for sharing the original work with friends. Well, it would be a
little hard for for the author to recover his costs if that was allowed...

As for sharing improvement. Well, I have argueed all along that distributing
improvements (patches) are allowed. For normal copyrighted work this doesn't
matter since the improvement are useless without the original work which
means
that orginal author will be paid, regardless.

> Compare that with the GPL. It grants you
> basically everything, 

Ironically the GPL depends on that distributing improvement (patches) isn't
allowed
otherwise I could just distribute patches to the GPL work under whatever
license.

Of course it is far from settled in law that it actually isn't...

> except that you are not allowed to withdraw the 
> freedom you enjoy from others.

If a modify a GPL:ed work the right to use the ORGINAL work is not withdrawn
from other people, so what you say is pure nonsence.

Note that the freedom to take my work is not one of the granted freedoms
because of copyright law, so I'm a little unsure that freedom your are
refering to.