🚀 go-pugleaf

   Date: 3 Jul 91 12:24:44 GMT
   Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
   From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (Industrial Poet)
   Sender: gnu-misc-discuss-request@cis.ohio-state.edu

   edguer@charlie.CES.CWRU.Edu (Aydin Edguer) writes:
   > In article <1991Jul2.183339.3838@beaver.cs.washington.edu> pauld@stowe.cs.was
   > >                         [...] Note I said source code - not stuff from
   > > the libraries, but perhaps something like taking gcc's parser, ripping
   > > it out and using it for something else. If I charge time+materials to
   > > a client for this, am I ripping of the original author of the parser,
   > > or simply making good use of their work ? 
   > 
   > You may also be making good use of their work.  But unless you
   > give back something to the author, you are ripping the author off
   > by charging someone else for the authors labor without
   > reimbursing the author.

   But the author does not want reimbursment.  If he did, he would not have
   released his software under the GPL.

One way of paying the author back is to send him your changes, so he
and others can use them.  Another way is to send them to the master
maintainer(s) of the program.  A third is to make them widely
available via Internet ftp, dial-up BBS, USENET sources newsgroups,
etc.

You could send the author some money.  FSF asks users of it's software
to do this, if they would like FSF to develope more free software.
(Note that FSF des not require it.)

thanx -len