Re: Economics and the GPL

Patrik Stridvall wrote:

>>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If a modify a GPL:ed work the right to use the ORGINAL work is not withdrawn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.
>

There is no "taking" of work.  You can modify GPLd code all you want and 
not distribute the source code.  You are just not allowed to distribute 
the binaries, either.  But that's fine, because the binaries are 
partially based on source code written by someone other than you, and 
they should have the right to determine how their work is to be 
distributed too, don't you think?

If *I* write some source code, do I or do I not get to determine how my 
source code is used?  If I decide I do not want it to be used in 
commercial software, isn't that my choice?  If I choose to put 
restrictions on the use of my source code, is it not my right?

If you wish the right to determine how *your* source code is to be used, 
I feel it is your responsiblity to allow others the same right.  If they 
decide they do not want their code in a product of which the source code 
is unavailable, it should their right.

This has nothing to do with the right of access, but the right of use. 
 Just as a novelist will not allow their work to be used in another's 
novel (though it does not affect access to the original work), source 
code authors should have the right to determine how their code is used.

                    - Tony