Re: Possible weakness in GNU copyleft????

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (robert)]

Since you posted this message, have you-all come up with a Web-GPL or
Server-GPL or something like that?  I would be interested.

 > Author:    Joseph C Wang
 > Email:     http://www.mit.edu/~joe
 > Date:      1999/01/12
 > 
 > In article <77fmb4$squ$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,  <http://www.my-dejanews.com/~brlewis> wrote:
 > >Clearly you've never maintained a modified version of third-party source,
 > >because you don't understand how costly it is for company X to hoard this way.
 > 
 > Costly yes, but if you have deep pockets, it's doable.  The whole
 > point of the GPL is to make it not merely expensive to hoard software,
 > but legally impossible.
 > 
 > >Believe me, keeping up with new releases while retaining local modifications
 > >is burdensome, so company X had better be sure the benefit is worth the cost
 > >before it goes down that road. Company Y, not being so burdened, will win in
 > >the end.
 > 
 > Except that company X has money to burn, and company Y does not.
 > 
 > In our particular case, we have essentially no money, just people who
 > can do database work.  Some of the people that could potentially enter
 > the market for course cataloging software could literally spend tens
 > of millions of dollars to wipe us out.
 > 
 > What we want to do to prevent this is to make our software the common
 > open standard in cataloging courses.  In order to get people to
 > develop using our software, we need a license that keeps our software
 > public regardless of what happens next.  If we make it merely highly
 > expensive to hoard our software, we are going to get our heads handed
 > to us on a platter when the deep pockets move in.
 > 
 > --
 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 > Joseph Wang Ph.D.          Globewide Network Academy
 > http://www.gnacademy.org/~president    FREE Distance Education catalog database
 > http://www.gnacademy.org   Over 15,000 courses and degrees