Re: Again: list of advantages of the xGPL

On Mon, 15 Jul 2002, Roland wrote:

> I just want to tell you one story that happened to me. We use the mm.mysql 
> JDBC driver. I once had a problem with it, and after a little testing I 
> figured out that it was a bug, or at least something that could be enhanced 
> in the driver(I don't remember for sure). Well, I emailed the developer of 
> that open-source driver about the problem. Guess what, after 45 minutes he 
> had not only fixed the bug, but recompiled everything and sent me back a 
> fixed binary(java bytecode) of the driver. I tested it, and yes, it worked 
> like expected! Our company didn't have to pay one cent for anything! No 
> consulting charges.

Of course it's wonderful when this sort of thing works out, but it's "catch 
as catch can".  (Um, where the hell did that phrase come from?)  Next time, 
you might not be so lucky.  But it's great when you are.

> >Where will the money come from to pay for end-user coding where there's
> >definite but diffuse demand?  You haven't addressed this question yet.

I'm looking for an answer to the general case, not a specific example -- in 
the abstract, what ought to be a stable and viable source of such funding?

> How about the MySql database? It is under the GPL. Who has paid for the 
> development?

In the case of MySQL, it was developed commercially, and ultimately someone 
else paid MySQL AB a bunch of money to get them to relicense it to the GPL.

Deven