Re: licensing question

On 3/16/06, Thomas Lord <[email protected]> wrote:
> I would like to solicit the community's opinion about a new commercial
> service I am considering offering.
>   You will pay me $5,000/yr for every CPU on which your installation
>   of a GNU Hello binary, compiled from the sources I provide, is
>   runnable.  For this purpose, multi-core chips count as a single CPU.
>
>   I reserve the right to come and inspect your facilities and records,
>   twice per year, during business hours, to ensure compliance.  If I
>   discover that you have made a binary derived from the sources I
>   provide runnable on more CPUs than you have paid for, you will owe
>   me $5,000 per additional CPU, plus 4% interest compounded monthly --
>   because presumptively, that means you are using my support services
>   to a greater degree than you've paid for.
>
Do I own money if I put a binary on an additional machine and I do not
want to use your support service on that additional machine no matter
what problems may rise?

And if I give the source to my neighbor so he can run on his machine,
and he does not want to use the support service?

I would guess if the answer to both is no, then there is no conflict
with the GPL.

Of course this is my personal view.

>   It therefore follows that you are not free to copy and use my
>   version of GNU Hello without additional restriction.
>
>   Of course, this contract doesn't override the GPL.   Far from it.
>   It's just that if you exercise your GPL rights in certain ways
>   you will owe me more money.
> -t
>