🚀 go-pugleaf

dd26+@andrew.cmu.edu (Douglas F. DeJulio) writes:

   You're assuming a particular way of working.  Let's use the
   service-based as opposed to product-based approach. [...]

   Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that Cygnus does at
   least some of their business this way.  It's totally ethical and
   within the reasonable bounds of the restrictions placed by the
   copyleft.

This is true enough.  However, my impression is that Cygnus has been
doing a fair amount of "customer education" in order to do so; time
will tell if it's successful in the long run.

Among the obstacles that must be overcome is market expectation.  Back
when I was doing freelance consulting, I got very used to customers
wanting as restrictive rights as possible, all the way up to wanting
me to destroy my own copies of the source code upon completion.
There's a strong tendency of people to say, "if we pay you for your
labor, the fruits of that labor are ours."

Now, I like the Cygnus approach much better; I'm not convinced,
though, that it will catch on throughout the industry, mainly because
of this kind of customer expectation.

--
Amanda Walker						      amanda@visix.com
Visix Software Inc.					...!uunet!visix!amanda
-- 
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