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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:15:18
Andy Brown (Andy.Brown@nexor.co.uk)
Thu, 1 Oct 1998 10:58:52 +0100
Ben wrote:
> c) In my experience GPL stops many companies from even considering using
> code.
Absolutely correct. I've had to do clean re-write's of code to mimic a GNU interface
because some un-suspecting developer in the early days of the product development
wasn't aware of the full effects of the GPL virus.
> A less restrictive licence gets it through the door, and they
> later come to understand the benefit of freeing the source, even though
> they are not obliged to. OK, so sometimes we lose under this scheme, but
> sometimes we gain.
I don't think we ever lose under such as scheme. Take Internet Explorer as
an example. It uses the IJG code for displaying JPEGs. We, as techies, get
to see the source code, adapt it to our needs and perhaps contribute towards
future improvements, and Joe User gets to view JPEGs using high quality code.
Everyone wins.
- Andy
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:15:18