GPL and Python modules.

[Cliff Wells]

On Mon, 2004-10-25 at 21:20 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2004-10-25, Cliff Wells <clifford.wells at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> >>  Customer want's help with B.
> >> 
> >> Sales is _not_ going to let you tell Customer that you don't
> >> provide support for B. 
> >
> > You *do* provide support for B.  Just not *free* support.  Win-win ;) 
> 
> We tried that.  We even set up a system to take credit-card
> numbers over the phone.  It never got used. 
> 
> > Somehow I find your company sales department's failure to
> > abide by your own company's written agreements to be a
> > somewhat less than convincing argument against open source
> > <wink>.
> 
> I'm not arguing agains open source.  I'm arguing against the
> statement that releasing source code doesn't cost anything.

I'd argue just the opposite: if properly managed, providing source opens
the doors to additional revenue (e.g. assisting the customer with
modifications).  The fact that your company doesn't charge for this is
only a statement about your company, nothing else.  And to be quite
honest, perhaps that is a positive statement from your customer's point-
of-view.  I am not making a judgment about which approach is better,
only that it doesn't have to be that way.

Regards,
Cliff

-- 
Cliff Wells <clifford.wells at comcast.net>