Still no new license -- but draft text available

[Grant Griffin]

Olivier Dagenais wrote:
> 
> > > Stallman has fairly well soured on his whole "copyleft" notion
> > > anyway. Free software is winning, the rest of us see little need
> > > for communism. Which is exactly what copyleft is, IMO.
> > What utter and total nonsense.  Copyleft is not about communism, it is
> > about removing artificial barriers to competition.  Copyleft is, quite
> > simply, cooperative-competition, which works by competing over "I have a
> > better idea", rather than, "I've hidden my ideas".
> 
> This is the part about "Copyleft" that I don't understand:  "I have a better
> idea" will be a valid statement until you ship (or you check in your code),
> at which point everybody else is free to use that "better idea".  How can
> you sell a product that is no better than your competitors'?  Or rather, how
> can you sell anything if the end user can simply build it themselves?

Your point is taken to some extent, but I think the confusion here is
over what "the product" of free/open software actually is; by
definition, the product isn't the software itself (because nobody is
paying for that), so it must be something else.  Usually, the "product"
boils down to some form of service: for example, if Red Hat can provide
a better service--in terms of features, packaging, marketing,
distribution, and customer support--than some other major Linux
distribution, they gain a competitive advantage.

Also, by contributing to the "gift economy" of open-source software, the
various Linux distributors generate a sort of "good will" market
advantage (or "brand name" advantage, if you like), which leads people
to want to support them (either consciously or unconsciously) by buying
their distribution--even if the same bits are available cheaper--or even
for free--somewhere else.  In that way, for example, the widespread use
of the Red Hat Package Manager (which--one can't help but
notice--carries the "Red Hat" brand name) has been a big marketing
success for Red Hat.

"service,-benjamin,-service"-ly y'rs,

=g2
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Grant R. Griffin                                       g2 at dspguru.com
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