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SubjectRe: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux

On Sun, 20 Dec 1998 ralf@uni-koblenz.de wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 20, 1998 at 03:17:33AM -0500, Mike A. Harris wrote:
>
> > Then they should clearly read the GPL, decide what they can
> > legal do, and not do, and then abide by the legalities of the GPL
> > license. If that means that they can't do something that they'd
> > like to... tough cookies. GPL is GPL for good reason. To
> > prevent commercial exploitation of GPL source code
>
> No. The GPL was designed to restrict the right to restrict rights.
>

The GPL does nothing to restrict exploitation of the original code as long
as the code is not distributed. In other words, I can use the code and
modify it to any extent I want. I can then set up a world-wide chain of
co-located web hosting sites using your GPL code on my machines where I
charge the user say $1000/month to serve his web content and manage a
small e-commerce back-end. I have not distributed any software so there
is no requirement that I share my modified code with anyone.


The binary is the magic genie. The moment I give someone a copy of my
executeable, I have to give them the source and can not restrict the
redistribution of that source. As long as I run my code on my machines
and only sell you the service provided by that, there is no requirement
that I give anything to anyone. I can build a billion dollar empire on GPL
software, all heavilly modified and improved and completey secret.



George Bonser

The Linux "We're never going out of business" sale at an FTP site near you!


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