Plan 9 license

[David Johnson]

On Sun, 27 Aug 2000, Martin Konold wrote:

> I think that this imposes a big thread on free software because it give
> large multinational cooperations an uncompetetive advantage compared to
> small businesses.
> 
> E.g. big multinational companies can make substantial changes and
> improvements to GPL'd software, distribute these to thousands of
> workplaces whithout the requirement to give these changes back to the
> original authors.

Hmmm, I'll have to disagree just a little bit. Although I am no fan of
corporations, and consider the fiction of corporations as legal persons
to be just that, fiction, attempts to eliminate this "advantage" cross
the line from public into private, and that's not a good thing to do.

First, there is no requirement to give changes back to the orginal
authors. If I modify gcc, for example, and give a copy to my friend, I
am not required to submit my modifications to anyone else. Second,
despite any legal shieldings a corporation may have, they still cannot
change the software's license. It doesn't matter if the corporation
tells me as an employee not to redistribute their modifications, since
it is not their copyright to change. As long as I personally possess a
copy, I can redistribute it. 

Finally, the only people affected by the corporation's lack of public
distribution affects only the corporation and its employees. The only
competitive advantage they can get out of the software is in its use.
They will not be able to sell their derivative or otherwise profit off
of it. As long as the software remains internal to the corporation, it
is the equivalent to a tool. And telling someone what they can or can't
do with their own tools in their own shop is one restriction too many.

> In contrast small companies cooperating with each other would in
> practise always be forced to make their modifications available.

Not really. There is no requirement for them to redistribute the
modifications. Taking a two person partnership as a example, if Susan
gives her partner John a modified copy of GNUCash to do the business
books with, John is not required to go across the street and give it to
his competitors as well. Even if the competitors find out about the new
and improved GNUCash and demand a copy, neither Susan nor John are
required to give it up. Just because one cannot prevent others from
redistributing the software in their possession, it does not follow
that they must force the others to redistribute them.

-- 
David Johnson
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