Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!gatech!eedsp!baud
From: baud@eedsp.gatech.edu (Kurt Baudendistel)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Copywrongs
Message-ID: <400@eedsp.gatech.edu>
Date: 19 Aug 89 00:34:39 GMT
References: <8908181603.AA02525@ipl.rpi.edu>
Reply-To: baud@eedsp.UUCP (Kurt Baudendistel)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 56

In article <8908181603.AA02525@ipl.rpi.edu> gnu-misc-discuss@cis.ohio-state.edu writes:
>...  I'm going to print it out and force
>people to read it whenever they ask me about Gnu.
>

What does this have to do with Gnu or the FSF? The FSF has a goal of
distributing free software. But free here doesn't mean ``free from cost,''
since you must pay distribution costs. But it doesn't even mean ``free
from cost over distribution costs''!

The free in FSF means ``free to do with as you see fit, as long as you
don't sell copies or derivative works without propogating this freedom to
your customers.'' In other words, you can sell copylefted software, if
anyone will buy it, at any price you please! 

Wait a minute! Does this jive with the GNU Software License and the
ideas of RMS? Incredibly, yes.  The wording of the copyleft and statements
by RMS himself (he will correct me if I am paraphrasing him out of context
or have misunderstood his statements to me)
allow me to do this. The trick is that if I sell copylefted software,
my customer gets all the rights (and responsibilities) of using that
copylefted software, including the source code and the right to resell the
software if he can and the restriction that he can only sell that same
software (or derived works) under the restrictions of the copyleft.

Simple (capitalistic) economics goes to work after my first sale. If my
customer chooses, he can distribute the code for free to anyone he wants
to. Or, he can keep it to himself and force others who want the software 
to pay me for it. Or, he can sell the software himself, although he must
abide by the copyleft when doing so, for any price he can get, higher or
lower than what I charged him. In any event, whether in a market economy or
one populated by do-gooders who distribute my software for free, the cost
of the software gradually will diminish to distribution costs of its own
volition. Along the way, each person who has the software is free to do
with it as he wishes, as long as he abides by the copyleft.

It may be expedient for my customers to keep me in business, since I may
offer to sell them upgrades in the future at some reasonable price. I am
free to do this. Or, I can arrange to provide support for the product for
some price. 

Anything is possible, because the software is FREE OF ALL
ENCUMBERANCES EXCEPT (technical ones and) THE COPYLEFT ITSELF, WHICH KEEPS
THE SOFTWARE FREE.

Thus, although the FSF promotes free software, be careful what you mean by
free. And again I ask, what does the communistic view of information have
to do with freedom? I claim that a communistic view restricts freedom 
more than a capitalistic view in any arena: political, economic, or
informational.

kurt
-- 
Kurt Baudendistel --- GRA
Georgia Tech, School of Electrical Engineering, Atlanta, GA  30332
internet: baud@eedsp.gatech.edu         uucp: gatech!gt-eedsp!baud