GPL Sued For "Software Price Fixing"

[piratePenguin]

http://linuxbusinessnews.sys-con.com/read/80782.htm
PANTS!

[toadlife]

Is it April 1st?

[Jenda]

You beat me to it. was just gonna post it.

All hell breaks loose.

GPL? The GPL? Limiting software freedom?

What the FUCKING HELL is wrong with this part of the Universe????

:fu:

[toadlife]

Well the GPL does limit freedom, but other licenses limit many more freedoms.

I really don't get WTF this fools are suing for. Their case makes no sense at all.

[Orethrius]

Actually, if you put your software under library GPL, you don't have to worry about that one provision.  After all, if you want to charge for your code, that's really your perogative. I'm surprised that this didn't come sooner, what with the way the GPL is phrased right there (make your open-source based project open-source OR ELSE). Then again, it should be noted that these companies were blissfully unaware of the terms of the licence when they signed it, which doesn't mean that they can allow it to be breached.

Bottom line: If you're not going to open-source your project, don't use the GPL OR ANY CODE UNDER IT!  This sounds like more whining by proprietary proponents that are confusing the Stallman licence with the library licence.  :rolleyes:

[Refalm]

Aren't you supposed to decide your own price of your GPL software?

What is this price fixing about then?

[piratePenguin]

Aren't you supposed to decide your own price of your GPL software?

What is this price fixing about then?

That's what I always thought.
RMS always said it's OK to sell free software (heh), but is the problem that FSF releases free software, defeating competition, and then there's (always) the (impossible) possibility of them starting to charge for the software and setup a monopaly?
FSF would do no such thing!
But anyhow, is that what the suit is about? 'cause
/me doesn't have a clue

[mobrien_12]

That's what I always thought.
but is the problem that FSF releases free software, defeating competition, and then there's (always) the (impossible) possibility of them starting to charge for the software and setup a monopaly?

FSF releases free software, but under the GPL.  This means that each and every recipient of GPL software, including you and me, receives the right to modify and redistribute that software, so long as it is redistributed under the GPL.  

Say someone releases software under the GPL, millions of people start to use it, then he/she decides to stop releasing it under the GPL and sells a new version under a proprietary licence.  Well, you and I and everyone else still has the source code to the old version and STILL have the rights to distribute and modify it.  No monopoly possible there.  

And if you write the software,  you can release it under as many different licences as you want.  Trolltech releases Qt as GPL and also sells non-GPL licences to people who want to use Qt for closed-source projects.

[mobrien_12]

There is a good discussion of this at Groklaw.

Anyway, the whole lawsuit is crap.  The GPL doesn't fix prices.  You can charge whatever you want for GPL software.  The only restriction is that every recipient of GPL software has the right to copy, modify, and redistribute the software under the GPL.  The GPL is really about freedom to distrubite and modify, not free of charge.

And nobody prevents you from writing proprietary software with superior features to open source stuff.  Plenty of people are making money with proprietary software.

[Annorax]

@the lawyers:

[piratePenguin]

This is insane.