🚀 go-pugleaf

On 6 Oct 1998 10:21:39 GMT, Christian Stieber
<stieber@informatik.tu-muenchen.de> wrote:

>In comp.os.linux.misc No Spam <nospam@nospam.nospam> wrote:
>
>> For example (and this is a real example), someone can port GNU
>> C to a specific processor, and then charge $15000 a copy for
>> the compiler and tools. Not a problem. The CUSTOMER probably won't
>> turn around and sell the compiler, or give it away, because that
>> would disadvantage the customer.
>
>No. He would turn around and sell it $1000 a piece, thereby pushing
>the original porter out of buisness. One can't make money by selling
>GPL software for a high price. Even the $1000 deal won't work for
>long, since the buyer can sell it for $500, then $200, then $100
>and so on.
>
>This has nothing to do with competition --- the "customer" didn't have
>to pay for porting the software. So the person who did the port
>looses, since he had to invest money to do the port. There is a big
>risk with that --- if he offers support for the software, and the
>software is good, people might not want to buy the support, and just
>copy the software for free instead.
>

like most gross oversimplifications this is basically true, but adds
nothing to the discussion.