[cc-licenses] open source non commercial license

drew Roberts zotz at 100jamz.com
Mon Feb 5 16:41:28 EST 2007


On Monday 05 February 2007 01:36 pm, Dana Powers wrote:
> "The GPL requires the software to always be free..."
>
> That's not true.

Yes, it is true. You have fallen into the classic mistake with Free Software 
which is thinking that the word free refers to price (is gratis) whereas the 
word free actually refers to freedom (is libre) and if you go to the link you 
provided, you will see this is how it is used in context.

"The main difference between the two licenses is that revised BSD licenses are 
permissive while the GPL is copyleft. The GPL requires the software to always 
be free, including derivative works, by requiring the software to always be 
licensed under the GPL. The BSD license only requires acknowledging the 
original authors, and imposes few restrictions on how the source code may be 
used. As a result, BSD code can be more easily integrated into or released 
entirely as proprietary software."

Free BSD code can be used in a non-free program. The non-free (non-libre) 
program can be given away (gratis) or sold (non-gratis.)

GPL code can only be used in other GPL programs. Thus the code is always free 
(libre) but it may be given away (gratis) or sold (non-gratis.) Actually with 
the GPL instead of selling, you may say that you charge for transferring, but 
it still amounts to non-gratis.

all the best,

drew
-- 
(da idea man)



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