Re: [oc] Inquiry

[John Dalton <john.dalton@bigfoot.com>]

> BUT, FSF/GNU is against the concept that software engineers need food on the 
> table,

I'll have to take issue here.  As I read it, FSF/GNU is against hiding
source code, not making money.  The license they wrote (GPL) explicitly
says you may sell something covered by the GPL.

One could argue that revealing source code is simply a way of better
informing the consumer, leading to a more 'perfect' market.  Hence any
drop in software prices, as a result of revealing source code, simply
reflects the true price of software.  Let's face it, when a near
perfect distribution medium (Internet) allows the same piece of
code to be reused globally, 

 cost per unit = (development cost+distribution cost)/units

is almost zero.

I suspect the real story is that with the advent of a near perfect
distribution medium (Internet) and improved market information
(Internet+GPL), efficiency in the software business has increased to
the point where the world has an oversupply of software engineers.
This fact was temporarily hidden by the Internet boom (and maybe there
was a genuine burst of creativity on the new medium, which employed all
those programmers), but now reality is biting.

There is also the issue that property law does not seem to transfer
well from physical objects to information (does it make sense for
someone to possess the number 103.4?).  In the past, this mismatch
was hidden by the fact that the cost of the distribution media was
typically a significant portion of the total cost.  To go any
further is a whole new discussion for a different mailing list.


> and says; If you link your code into GNU developed software, you have 
> to give your software away as well. That is not FREEDOM, that is SLAVERY!!

No, it's not slavery.  No one is forcing anyone to link to GNU developed
software (or GPL covered software for that matter).  Anyone is free
to ignore the GPLd code base and use any alternative.

I think the real issue is that it is just so difficult to ignore all
that great GPLd software out there.


Finally, if I can make a 'preemptive strike', people should not confuse
FSF, Stallman and the GPL.  All  because a person applies the GPL to a
piece of work, it doesn't mean they agree with the politics of the FSF
or Stallman.

Regards
John
--
To unsubscribe from cores mailing list please visit http://www.opencores.org/mailinglists.shtml