Re: About GPL and proprietary software

Dann Corbit wrote:
> This is what I find odd about GPL software:
> {an illustration}
> A man named George opens a spoon factory. People flock to his shop to
> make spoons with no charge for their labor. You see, it is a company in
> combat with the mighty "Oneida" which makes lots of spoons and people
> could sure use some cheap, reliable spoons. If anyone uses these
> spoons, then the knife, fork, plate and glass also now belong to George.
> Strangely, George charges as much for these spoons (manufactured at no
> cost to him) as Oneida.

Your illustration is interesting, but it doesn't tell the whole story. A
better illustration would be:

A man named George opens a spoon factory. People flock to his shop to
make spoons, but they are not paid for their labor, nor do they expect
to be paid.

George's company is in competition with the mighty "Oneida", which makes
lots of spoons, but they cost a bit of money to buy. People sure would
like to have cheap, reliable spoons, so George's company provides just
that. In fact, the spoons are so cheap, George *gives* them away, along
with the plans for making the spoons.

How can George do this? Well, George tells everyone who takes a spoon
(as a form of license):

"You can take a spoon, and you can make new spoons from my plans, as
well as improve upon my spoons. But if you sell them or give them away,
you must tell those you sell or give them to what I have told you, and
also give them the plans so they may make spoons as well."

Now, you may chuckle and think that George will go out of business - now
everyone knows his secret to making spoons - why buy or take from George
when you can just make spoons for yourself? But you agreed to a license
with George. Now what?

Well, you can make spoons all day long, for yourself - even for your
immediate family. But if you give (or sell) them to anybody else - you
*must* tell them what George told you, and give them the plans for
making spoons.

Spoons may be made all day long, and improvements to those spoons as
well. George, in fact, thinks "Hey, some of those improvements will come
back my way - they have to, eventually - and I can improve upon my own
spoons, and then give or sell those as well! Better spoons for everyone!".

One day, George hears of an improvement made to his spoon, and is given
a copy (along with the revised plans) - this spoon has little "prongs"
on the end (and strangely enough, is called a "Fork"). George likes this
new "spoon" so much - he wants to sell it, and keep the secret to
himself. But he can't, at least not with the plans he has, because he
would have to abide by the same license he himself set out. So George
decides to do something different, and figure out a different way to
make these new spoons without using any of the changes detailed in the
plans he recieved with the new spoon.

George isn't as successful - but he does come up with a much more useful
(?) variant of spoon and fork - he calls it a "Spork", because it seems
to combine the best attributes of both. While he started with his
original spoon design, since he is the owner of that design he can
license/contract it in any manner he wants - and this time he decides
that he wants to sell this new spoon, and not tell anyone how it is made.

Now, the original spoon didn't cost George anything to make - but he had
to pay someone (even if it was just himself) to come up with the idea of
a Spork, so he is justified in selling it for whatever people will pay -
even though people may still get spoons from him and others, and there
are also these mysterious "forks" floating around. Some may choose to
buy sporks - others can get spoons and forks (for free, though some
makers provide a 1-900 number "service" to learn how to properly use them).

---

I think even my analogy has flaws, but it is much closer to the truth
about the GPL...

Andrew Ayers
Phoenix, Arizona

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