Re: Economics and the GPL

--- "Deven T. Corzine" <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Matt Seitz wrote:
> 
> > The question 
> > then becomes:  what is the best way to prevent an xGPL project from 
> > becoming a destructive monopoly?
> 
> That's exactly the question I've been asking myself for a while now.
> 
> I'm not sure what the answer is.  I don't think Stallman can be trusted to 
> rein in the GPL, though it's in his power, even if it becomes a destructive 
> monopoly, because it wouldn't be destroying what HE cares about.

I'm not certain of the answer, either.  I agree that one should not leave it
purely up to RMS or the FSF.  Not because I think they are evil, but simply
because I don't think any monopolist should be expected to be entirely
self-regulating.
 
> Most importantly, how can one adress this danger without coming to be 
> viewed as an "enemy" by GPL adherents?

Well, I've given one suggestion:  advocate for much shorter software copyright
duration.  The FSF already publicly supports that, and it would limit the power
of the xGPL by making the code public domain (and open to non-xGPL users)
sooner.  In fact, it would limit the powers of all software monopolies, whether
they be an xGPL project or Microsoft.

Until such legislative change, perhaps a modified version of the xGPLs could
give similar benefits.  Something along the lines of "5 years after receiving
this work, you may distribute a work derived from this work, provided you
licensee all others to distribute and modify the derived work, free of charge,
5 years after distributing the derived work."  One could still require source
be distributed with binaries, but could prohibited redistributing the source
for up to 5 years.  This would give proprietary companies a 5-year window of
exclusive distribution of their version, allowing them to make a profit, while
requiring them to eventually return their code to the public and xGPL community.

=====
Sincerely,
Matt Seitz

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