Jim Wilson wrote:
> Andy Ross wrote:
> > There's actually nothing wrong with selling free software for money,
>
> The first statement there is not exactly true. Take another look at
> the GPL. At the prices he is charging for "shipping and handling"
> it'd be fair to call that a legitimate distribution fee.
No, it's correct. The second paragraph of section 1 of the GPL v.2
reads quite plainly:
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy
There is no limitation placed on what that "fee" is, it could be
anything. Obviously it is limited to a fee for a service, as the GPL
precludes selling a "license" or other IP rights. But there is no
requirement here that the fee be "legitimate". A fee is a fee, it's a
price that someone charges for something, and the seller gets to set
the price subject only to market demand.
What I think you are confusing it with is this language from section
3b:
You may copy and distribute the Program [...] in object code or
executable form [...] provided that you also [...]
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code
But that languages is specifically for *compiled* distributions. You
can sell it for whatever you want, but *if* you sell it without the
source code, you need to make sure that the user can get the source
code easily and cheaply. In this case, the guy says the source code
is in the package.
Really, there is nothing legally wrong with what this guy is doing,
and the only ethical glitch is the ambiguity of not identifying it as
GPL software in the advertisement (which he said he'd fix).
I guess I fail to understand why so many people get upset about this
sort of thing. If there was significant money to be made selling free
software, wouldn't we all be, y'know, making some? :)
Give him a break; I can all but promise you he's not getting rich on
our work. Think of it as evangelism: distributing FlightGear to
people (and there are many!) who aren't comfortable with or capable of
downloading (or even discovering) giant software packages from the
internet.
Andy
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