[GRASSLIST:10801] Re: [GRASS5] FWD: [OSGeo-Discuss] Incubation Committee / Contributor Agreements]

[Moritz Lennert]

Laurent C. wrote:
> 2006/3/8, Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com 
> <mailto:glynn at gclements.plus.com>>:
> 
> 
>     As I see it, the main risk of allowing proprietary derivatives is a
>     risk of "siphoning off" developers and beta testers (aka "users") from
>     the free version towards a "mostly, but not quite" free version.
> 
>     IMHO, the biggest risk is with versions which are "free-enough for
>     most people", e.g. "free for non-commercial use". OpenDWG is probably
>     a good example; it isn't "Free Software", but it's close enough to
>     significantly reduce the chances of a genuinely-free alternative being
>     developed.
> 
>  
> 
> Hello list, hello Glynn,
> 
> I don't think OpenDWG is a good example because there is no free 
> alternative and AFAIK Open Desing Alliance hasn't fork any free 
> software, and there is no community around this project.

That's exactly the point: since there is something "free-enough for most 
people" as Glynn puts it, there is not enough incentive for the creation 
of a really free version.

Using the GPL should keep people from using the existing code to create 
such "free-enough for most people".

Moritz