Re:GPL Time Bomb – an interesting approach to FOSS licensing
by dragonwriter on Friday September 09, 2016 @11:56AM
(#12463382)
> People confuse Free Software to mean gratis rather than libre. It can be, but it doesn't have to be.
It doesn't have to be initially, but once you redistribute it to others with the permission to redistribute it that defines Free Software, the probability that you end up competing with gratis derivatives of the same code base tends to unity over time.
So, Free-for-a-price software really relies on a premium price charged to early users (often only the first user); IOW, its more like selling bespoke software development services than like selling other software licenses.
It doesn't have to be initially, but once you redistribute it to others with the permission to redistribute it that defines Free Software, the probability that you end up competing with gratis derivatives of the same code base tends to unity over time.
So, Free-for-a-price software really relies on a premium price charged to early users (often only the first user); IOW, its more like selling bespoke software development services than like selling other software licenses.