quote:
Originally posted by Billy Gates: Mac Comrade Captain:
I was thinking about this Free Speech not Free Beer. Which means I could sell the software correct? Then I could allow you to change the code, the only problem is distributing it freely. Because, basically that means I would sell one copy, and no one else would buy it. I don't see the point, Free Speech not Free Beer. But with Free Software everyone gets it free except for the very first person to purchase it, correct. Or do I have some information wrong?
yes this is one hundred percent correct, and is one of the reasons that certain greedy bastards refuse to release their software under the GPL.
if you charge $6000 for your product (GPL as it may be) then you must make the source code available to anybody who buys it. However everybody who buys it and gets the code is legally allowed to sell or give the thing away (with or without modifications) for whatever price they like, so long as their customers get full source code for whatever they are buying/getting given for free too.
in effect this could mean that you'd sell a few at $6000 and everybody else would copy it, but possibly all your customers would be just as greedy and would refuse to copy it for free. sooner or later somebody will give it away for free though i think if it's under the GPL.
anyway, if you had charged $50 for it then perhaps you'd have sold a shitload more copies and made more money because people might have thought (wow! this software's worth paying for, i'll just pay for it!".
Another way is to release the program under the GPL and all the plugins you charge money for (that's a pretty obnoxious way of getting money if you ask me, but it's legal).
there are many other ways to make GPL software pay, as you can see it's quite a complex setup.
