🚀 go-pugleaf

Peter> Karl, I'd like you to post the following for me, since I don't seem
Peter> to be able to post from aladdin right now.  Thanks.

A recent thread in gnu.misc.discuss asks the question, "Is it
possible to make money selling copylefted software?"  Someone
astutely pointed out that since copyleft is based on copyright, the
original author could theoretically license some other version of the
code in other, "non-free" ways.

Since early this year (1991), Aladdin Enterprises, the copyright
holder of Ghostscript, has been both distributing a copylefted
Ghostscript, and licensing it under "non-free" terms to companies
that are willing to pay for the privilege of being able to sell
commercial products based on Ghostscript (including, of course,
support from Aladdin).  The code distributed through these two
channels is identical; all that is different is the licensing terms.

Since Aladdin Enterprises is a part-time (now unfortunately close to
zero-time) business, the amount of money involved has been rather
small so far, but Ghostscript is slowly acquiring a good reputation
in the commercial world, and increasingly demanding customers are
negotiating for licenses.  I have reason to think that I could
support myself pretty well in a year or so if I were doing this
full-time.

I'm not necessarily recommending this approach to anyone, just
offering it as a real-life example of a compromise position that
preserves most of the value of the copyleft while retaining some
amount of commercial potential.

L. Peter Deutsch :: Aladdin Enterprises :: P.O. box 60264, Palo Alto, CA 94306
ghost@aladdin.com ; ...decwrl!aladdin!ghost ; 415-322-0103     8-9 AM M-F
	    "Implementation is the sincerest form of flattery."


--
karl@cs.umb.edu
Member of the League for Programming Freedom---write to league@prep.ai.mit.edu.