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Comment by camus2 | Hacker News Reader

> Maybe contribute to gedit and try to sell an even newer version for Mac? Selling free software isn't a bad thing to do.

AFAIK Gedit is GPL, at least, I'm not sure how this guy can sell this software while not violating the license at the same time.

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I have seen people complain like this often. It's like people don't understand the meaning of free software licenses. Anyone can use the code in any context as long as any changes made are available. Yes, totally no restrictions. A business can build a billion dollar company from gedit and not give the original author anything. This is how it works.

> It's like people don't understand the meaning of free software licenses.

It's like people don't understand there is many different "free software licenses" as well.

> A business can build a billion dollar company from gedit and not give the original author anything.

A billion dollar company which sells GPL software will have to provide the entire source and its modifications to their clients and make it available as GPL so that the client can exploit it commercially without giving a single cent to that billion dollar company.

True, but if your customers don't choose to do that, your business model stays intact, which is clearly what's happening here.

Moreover, if you understand that this isn't a violation of the license, what were you saying in your original comment?

> so that the client can exploit it commercially without giving a single cent to that billion dollar company.

of course since most clients, know how to support and especially compile the source code (p.s. this barley happens)

There's nothing about the GPL that stops people from selling GPL licensed code, you're just required to make the code available and follow the rest of the GPL requirements, which means there's nothing you can do if one of your customers decides to share your product with the world.

> you're just required to make the code available

And any modification of that code for free AFAIK.

It depends, there are various distribution options depending on the GPL version. You can either distribute the source together at the same price, or you can offer to get the source later from a different medium charging no more than your distribution costs (e.g. cost of physical medium, server hosting costs, shipping costs). That's kind of GPLv2. In GPLv3, it talks about "equivalent access", which I think means you can also charge for the source the same price that you charged for the binary.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMon...

The GPL isn't as anti-commercial as its detractors make it out to be.

It means if you offer the binaries for download it is enough if you also offer the source for download. So you don't have to have a mechanism for distributing physical media.

Only to the people you've distributed binaries to though. You don't have to release changes to anyone who asks if they never purchased the custom binary.

The FSF used to sell tapes with EMACS, GCC, etc for $200 apiece.

Presumably their customers were getting value for money, otherwise they wouldn't have paid for it.

In this case, perhaps, but that's not a general argument though.

Ever had to pay through the roof because there was a single vendor for something, like the single supermarket in town or the only coffee vendor onboard a train?

Sure, you get "value for money" as opposed to not having the thing at all. Just that value is not a binary, it's a spectrum, and you might get too little value for too much money.

I've had buyers remorse, I bought the coffee on the train then regretted it. But that was entirely my own doing, I didn't need to buy it.

Sure, if your supplier has a monopoly on the essentials of life that's a different matter, but I don't think we are anywhere near that.

I don't think "our own doing" and/or "the essentials or life" are a binary either though...

Presumably he could ship it with a copy of the code and license and be in compliance, right?

He doesn't have to ship it with the code. He's only obliged to give a copy on request. And you're entitled to ask, of course.

I think you and Moto7451 are both correct; i.e. doing either of those things would fulfill the source distribution requirement. What GPL does not allow is shipping binaries without source while honoring source code requests exclusively from your own customers. It's either providing them together to customers or providing source separately to anyone who asks.

Have you read the GPL? There's absolutely nothing in it about whether or not you can charge for the product, only that you have to give (modifiable) source code to anyone you give the product to (and you can charge a nominal administrative fee, if you must).

AFAIK Gedit is GPL, at least, I'm not sure how this guy can sell this software while not violating the license at the same time.

What violation?

It's fine as long as he's providing the source.

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