Re: Economics and the GPL

Matt Seitz <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.emulators.wine.license
Message-ID <[email protected]>
"Deven T. Corzine" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The GPL seeks
> to take the choice away from the authors by saying "use the GPL or else".  
> (The "or else" expands to "or else you can't use this enormous base of 
> existing GPL code to build on top of".)

This is like saying the grocery store seeks to take money away from people by
saying "pay me money, or else you can't have this banana".  Yes, in a literal
sense the grocery is seeking to take money from people.  One could also say the
store is seeking to give bananas away.  Neither is the whole truth.  What is
really happening is that the store is offering a voluntary exchange:  if you
will give me money, I will give you a banana.  

Likewise, I don't see the GPL as "taking choice away", I see it as offering an
exchange:  "I will give you x if you will give me y".  That to me is not
"taking", it is trading.



=====
Sincerely,
Matt Seitz

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