Re: licensing

On Sun, 2003-10-19 at 19:50, Russell McOrmond wrote:
> On 19 Oct 2003, Simon deWeerdt wrote:
> 
> > I don't see what is wrong with proprietary software people making a
> > profit.  I DO see something wrong with idealists insisting everyone
> > write software for free.
> 
>   If people are to have a conversation we need to ensure people are
> talking about the same thing.  The GPL has been seen as idealistic by
> some, while others consider it a very practical business decision to help
> facilitate (accelerate) market corrections.

Thank-you, of course I do not wish to belittle the GPL license.

Thank-you for an inclusive discussion of different software business
models.

For those of us that work on proprietary software products GPL software
may be less usable.  If this is a conscious choice in support of
objectives that includes recognition of the market reality that much
development occurs in a proprietary environment and does not exclude
that method of value delivery then I support and commend use of the GPL.

If it is used to coerce development into a new business model I question
its wisdom.  

I believe that open source software of one form or another will offer
greater utility than closed source and ultimately be the preferred
form.  I think it is in government's interest to buy open source and to
have licenses that meet their objectives.  One would not want the
developers of government software to make the next version closed
source.  However I don't think its necessary to limit publicly developed
software to further development within the open source model.

The most important choice is open specifications and interfaces, then
open source, then whether that open source can be used in anything other
than further open source products.

Simon de Weerdt