Copyleft/guide Changeset - 4e4919167ef2

Changeset - 4e4919167ef2

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Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 10 years ago 2014-03-21 16:54:18
bkuhn@ebb.org

Proprietary relicensing comment.

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gpl-lgpl.tex

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gpl-lgpl.tex

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 proprietary relicensing of a GPL'd code base. This is only an option for
 software in which a particular entity is the sole copyright holder. As
 discussed earlier in this tutorial, a copyright holder is permitted under
 copyright law to license a software system under her copyright as many
 different ways as she likes to as many different parties as she wishes.
-Some companies, such as MySQL AB and TrollTech, use this to their
+Some companies, such as Oracle, use this to their
 financial advantage with regard to a GPL'd code base. The standard
 version is available from the company under the terms of the GPL\@.
 However, parties can purchase separate proprietary software licensing for
 a fee.
 This business model is problematic because it means that the GPL'd code
+This business model is at best problematic and at worst predatory because it means that the GPL'd code
 base must be developed in a somewhat monolithic way, because volunteer
 Free Software developers may be reluctant to assign their copyrights to
 the company because it will not promise to always and forever license the
 software as Free Software. Indeed, the company will surely use such code
 contributions in proprietary versions licensed for fees.

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