Wrong, as usual. Sigh. Microsoft Education at work?

Story: Open source 'pirates' will be prosecuted, says ministryTotal Replies: 1
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AnonymousCoward

Sep 13, 2004
10:16 PM EDT
The GPL has a specific clause endorsing resale. You don't have to give away GPLed software, you only have to make it as accessible as the binaries you create from it.

Microsoft find the idea of total freedom completely alien. One of the common misconceptions that they use is that if you GPL your software, you have to give it away for free. MySQL and TrollTech are both turning a pretty penny from businesses which are built around GPLed software.

The idea that GPLed software can be "stolen", except by people who would refuse to redistribute derived sources (even The SCO Group redistribute Linux source - or at least did until 04 August of this year), is a bit mind-boggling.
Void_Main

Sep 14, 2004
8:42 AM EDT
It sounds like Othman Ahmad is lumping all OSS into one category (one license) and you can't do that. There are many open source license each with it's own restrictions. You are right that a company can sell GPL software but there is nothing they can do to prevent me to take that GPL software that I have purchased from them and give it away to whoever wants it. That's not really what the article is about though. From the little quote by Othman Ahmad it would appear that they don't understand OSS and that all OSS isn't licensed under the same license.

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