[antlr-interest] Re: antlraux v0.2 released - new site (http://antlraux.sf.net)

antlrlist antlrlist at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 31 15:14:17 PDT 2003


Answer below...

<Matthew.Ford at f...> wrote:
> Hi Enrique,
> Nice looking package.  Unfortunately I cannot use it because your
licencing would force me to give away any work I use it with.
> 
> " b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
>     whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
>     part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
>     parties under the terms of this License.
> "
> 
> As a private software developer/contractor (no big support company
here) I
> need to be able to charge for my work (keeps food on the table). 
People who
> contract me also want to charge for my work.
> 
> Could I encourage you (and other Antlr add-on developers) to keep the
> licencing as open as Antlr's.
> 
> matthew.
> 

Hi Matthew!

First of all, thanks for your feedbak!

The verb "give away" in your statement is a bit ambiguous. The GPL
only forces you to release your code along with your binaries, if you
make any releases. It does not force you to "give it away" in the
sense of "give it away for free": you can certainly sell it, as long
as you provide the binaries+source or at least provide a link were you
can download the source. Plus, you don't have to provide any
guarantees or technical support for this code.

It is true that you allow legal file copies. But you're not required
to also make it available to the public without a charge - others
could. This is because free software business model is not
product-based, but service-based: you can still charge others for
installation, maintenance, formation, etc. You don't have to offer any
support if they don't pay you.

Moreover, if you don't release your program to the public (this is,
you use it as an internal tool) you don't have to do anything; you can
keep your source for yourself.

This said, you're the first one who has shown interest in the tool. I
made the effort to release it because I wanted people to use it; if
you're really going to use it, I can change the license to another a
bit more permissive, like LGPL.

Thanks a lot for taking the time of writing your opinion.

Enrique.


 

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