On Saturday 11 July 2009, amachu wrote:
Hi,
The problem here, I suppose is with the Laws themselves, which were enacted for situations & conditions that existed erstwhile and we are left in an unfortunate condition of fitting modern practices into them.
It is more about companies relying on legal innovation rather than business and technical innovation.
In the case of FLOSS companies, the simple act of separating the closed bits on a different media, with whatever licence one deems fit, would remove all ambiguities. Infact in this case making it mandatory to make an EXACT facsimile for copying and redistribution including the artwork, would ensure plenty of free publicity to RH. Why do you think companies handout freebies? What do you think Canonical is doing? It's very smart marketing by Canonical. What came to the top of my mind when i thought of ditching Debian? it was Canonical (mono in ubuntu is another story though). RH has been around longer, but IMO it's Canonical which has mindshare, by the simple act of encouraging copying.
Every Company in trouble thinks of twenty legalities to cover their asses. However the ones that survive produce products and services rather than bits of paper plastered with legal jargon.