RE: GPL and Economics

--- Patrik Stridvall <[email protected]> wrote:
> I you only have two actors on the market this is absolutely true.
> However if you have more than you have the problem that if say
> X number of people make a GPL:ed work together it becomes quite
> more difficult for invidual contributors to change the terms of their
> work to something else if another group of people comes along
> and wishes to cooperative. Not impossible but more difficult.
> 
> The point is that each transaction on the market limits the possible
> future choices of people on the market, so it is not truely free in
> the meaning of a normal free market.

So long as one has the choice whether or not to join an xGPL project, it seems
to me this is still a natural part of a free market.  Yes, deciding to become
part of a xGPL project will limit your future choices.  But the same is true of
any contract.  If the terms of the contract are too onerous, don't become a
party to it.  If you don't like the GPL, start another project.

The main problem I see with contracts is when one is either tricked or
compelled to enter into it.  I don't think anyone is tricked into joining a GPL
project:  they seem pretty open and upfront about the restrictions you are
entering into.  I do see the possibility for compulsion.  The only possiblity
of compulsion I see is if (as others have suggested) a GPL project became an
effective monopoly.  In that case the GPL project could, like any monopoly,
become coercive and distort competition.

At that point it might be necessary to place limits on the power of the GPL to
limit programmer's actions.  As I suggested earlier, one limit could be to
restrict the length of copyright, and therefore the length under which the GPL
contract is effective.  That seems to me a good way to limit the coercive power
of any software monopoly, whether it be the GPL or Microsoft.


=====
Sincerely,
Matt Seitz

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