Re: licensing

Whoops... I am tired... I sent the wrong email. Apologies to the list. 
Found so many lost pointers today that the lost pointers migrated to my 
brain. :(

Taran

Taran Rampersad wrote:

> I snipped everything else, because the answer is right there... Rather 
> than going point by point.
>
> Simon deWeerdt wrote:
>
>>
>>> But to drag this back onto topic: Why should the South African 
>>> government and it's citizens pay for software that can be used in a 
>>> competing proprietary application from another country? I fail to 
>>> see how that would benefit the people of South Africa. In fact, I 
>>> would go so far as to call it the theft of the South African 
>>> people's investment. With the GPL, the people of South Africa would 
>>> derive benefits from everyone else's modifications to the source 
>>> code as well. A negative effect versus a positive effect.
>>>   
>>
>>
>> Why should the people of South Africa have to ensure that their software
>> cannot be used in proprietary applications?  They will not be required
>> to buy competing proprietary applications so why would they choose to?
>>  
>>
> Aha. But why should some proprietary company profit from what equates 
> to the toil of the citizens of a country? Why should some farmer, who 
> doesn't make much but pays his taxes, have to help pay for software 
> which someone who is driving a BMW will wrap into his/her code and 
> upgrade to the latest BMW?
>
> I'd be a rather irate farmer. My tractor isn't air conditioned, my 
> posterior hurts from the long hours of sitting on an uncomfortable 
> seat (not to mention the hemmerhoids), my back hurts because of 
> bending to plant things, I have carpal tunnel syndrome from the 
> vibration in the steering wheel that I couldn't afford to fix from 
> last year... My kid is in jail because he wanted a BMW so bad, he 
> started car-jacking (a big thing in South Africa I hear) and someone 
> had that experimental spring loaded metal bars that clip out - so my 
> kid has broken legs and in jail, he will walk funny the rest of his 
> life, and someone has to tend the farm... My wife is sick, so her 
> sister travelled by bus to help out, but she got sick too, so I have 2 
> sick women in the house.
>
> And you want to give something to this guy in another country wearing 
> a suit and upgrading a BMW to the latest and ugliest BMW? With MY taxes?
>
> Of course, if I'm selling diamonds to the BMW owner, I wouldn't care. 
> But today, I'm a farmer.  In fact,  the odds are very good that if I 
> were born in South Africa, I wouldn't be the person selling diamonds.
>
>>> My decision would be simple. GPL.
>>>   
>>
>>
>> Its not our decision, I've said my piece and am no longer interested in
>> debating it.  You may be right, I just see it differently.
>>  
>>
> There was really no debate. There still isn't. Be a farmer in South 
> Africa for a day. Pay taxes. Trust your government. What would you 
> expect?
>
> Taran
>