Why is Fedora not a Free GNU/Linux distributions?

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Jul 24, 2008, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> What are your objections to it, if any?

> It's not clear.  Would that permit a piece of covered code to be
> included in a CDDL-covered work and vice versa?

I'm way beyond the point of believing you care or believe my
understanding of software licenses.  So you tell me, would it?

> History shows that much software that is currently freely shared was
> once developed as proprietary versions

Was it derived from Free Software in the first place?  Otherwise your
bringing it up is meaningless for the sake of the argument.

>> If anything, the payment for my work should be divided by all
>> users, so that each of them pays less.

> Suppose it is a work that requires 10 people to complete.  Will you
> pay the other 9 up front first, knowing that any of them have the
> right to redistribute the code before you are paid?

I don't see how the question relates with what I proposed.  Are we
talking past each other?

> Why would your customer pay for that first copy, knowing no one else
> has to share the cost?  And you can't charge less than the full amount

Here's a plan:

- I charge the first customer, that hired the software development,
  a fair price for the work I did.

- This customer is entitled to further distribute it or sell it, since
  it's Free Software.

- I help the customer set up a plan to recover some of the investment:
  I commit to not publishing the software before a certain date,
  except to customers who join an "early access group", and we invite
  others to join this group for a fee that shrinks as more customers
  join.  The fee is split over all previously-joining customers.  None
  of them are under any obligation to not distribute the software any
  further.

- Once they reach a goal number or a date, I make the software
  available to everyone.

>> The GPL does respect it, even though it sets forth conditions to stop
>> you from not respecting others' freedoms.

> The GPL forces a choice between one kind of restriction or another.

You're yet to show any evidence of an actual (rather than imagined)
restriction in the GPL.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Free Software Evangelist  oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}
FSFLA Board Member       ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org}