Re: Idea for an alternative license

In general, I think this time-limited license is a great idea.  It seems to
have the strengths the original copyright idea had:  exclusivity for a
limited time as an incentive for entrepreneurship and invention, followed by
free, public access to allow new innovation and prevent the harms of a
perpetual monopoly.

I recall that the Ghostscript program has a similar two-tier, time-delayed
licensing scheme.  It might be worthwhile to look at the experience gained
from that product's license.

I am unclear about one aspect of this proposal.  It isn't clear to me whether
under this proposal the time delay would work both ways.  In other
words, if one contributes new code to the general WINE tree, would
commercial companies be prevented for 6-12 months from a binary only
distribution with the new code?

It seems to me that, in fairness, they should.  The same rules should apply
to everybody.  If the general WINE tree has to wait 6-12 months for someone
else's code, then that someone else should also have to wait 6-12 months for
the latest WINE code.

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Sincerely,
Matt Seitz

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