Rony wrote:
In case of the former, one can charge any X amount from the client for making a customized package.
But in the latter, suppose I make a CAD software thats very good and works just like the popular closed CAD software. I post it on the net under GPL and keep a price of some 100s of dollars. Now some smart alec who is out to ruin my business compiles my code and even acknowledges my good work and puts the package on the net for a free download. He is doing a perfectly legal thing as the GPL allows this. So how do I run my company when my work is available to others for free as in beer.
When we consider such a scenario, the ratio of developers / programmers and customers (or end users) would result to less than 1 (< 1). By this, I mean, there are far more end-users than developers and programmers.
Again, if smart alec, put its on the internet, there would some investment, that would make him re-consider, putting it for free. Secondly, he would have to invest in advertising that he's put your software as free download. Considering the cost of $100, it would also indicate that you have some amount invested in good advertising and that your software is under GPL.
Even then considering the worst case scenario, Vinayak Suggested:
- Dual licensing source code for commercial use
(one of his points).
I found the following page descirbing dual licensing http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/duallicence2.xml
What Ubuntu does is, despite that it sends CD's for free (no cost) to anybody who demands its, provides supports for Ubuntu OS at desktop and server levels.
But this in turn indicates, that much of the Free software over the internet are indeed, also, free as in bear, especially Linux distros. Where is the source of money for maintaining mirrors / servers for ISO's of these distros?
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