Business GPL concerns (was: [svlug] Possible GPL v. 3 licence terms)

[Mike Coleman]

J C Lawrence <claw at kanga.nu> writes:
> To abstract briefly:
> 
>   Consider that I have a cork bulletin board in my store that I
>   allow people to post notes on (paper and thumbtack).  
> 
>   Now I have various problems with this board, which I built from
>   GPL plans, and I finally replace it with a new baord that I built,
>   based on the old plans, but which is in some way better.

Is this a good analogy?  I would say that you have the right to replace the
board with one of your choosing, no matter where you got the plans for it nor
what the design is based on, whether you paid for the original design or just
copied something you saw somewhere.

That's not how we currently treat software, though.

>   I don't stop people attempting to reverse engineer or replicate my
>   design changes.

This doesn't seem to go with the argument.  I'm pretty sure that companies
making proprietary mods to OS licensed software would, in general, throw a
huge flaming fit if I tried to reverse engineer their software, especially if
it involves some patent.

--Mike

-- 
Mike Coleman, mkc at mathdogs.com
  http://www.mathdogs.com -- problem solving, expert software development