Re: [Fsfe-uk] Accounts

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 10, 2003 at 12:17:44AM +0100, Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:
>  
>
> > Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > On licensing:
> > > Have you considered the MySQL AB approach,
> > > GPL it all and make non-GPL licenses available for a fee to
> > > companies that want to integrate some of your code
> > >
> > >      
> > Am I correct to say that the GPL version can also be intergrated but it 
> > cannot be passed on for a fee?
> > Where can one find good docs on dual licensing?
> >    
>
> Yes you can sell GPL software but people won't pay for it.
> (I'll sell you a copy of the GNU Accounting Utils for 20 quid if you like?)
>  
It depends. As 20GBP is reasonably afforbable by me I will definitely 
weigh the merits against a download.
Especially so if I know I am buying from someone who is in the know how 
about that software and  a few golden tips might come along with such a 
purchase.

> I don't know of any dual licensing docs, it's not that big
> a subject.  Dual licensing is just offering two licenses and
> letting the user decide which one to be bound by.
The specific reason I ask is because a keyboard/input method for another 
human language (claiming 500,000 Windows users covered under a 
proprietary licence, intoxicated with free beer) is thinking about 
entering the GNU/Linux field, and possibly freely :-).
They asked me and I have not provided an answer yet. Just mentioning 
MySQL or DjVu  might actually complicate matters or even put them off 
although the same principles might agree. If anyone can can eloborate a 
bit more on this please mail me offlist.

> If I was writing an application that needed a database back-end,
> I'd integrate the MySQL code and choose to be bound by the GPL.
> This would force me to GPL my code but that's okay with me.
>
> If a proprietary software company was writing a similar application,
> they may not want to be bound by the GPL, so they would pay for
> the other license which doesn't require them to GPL their code.
Is dual licensing using the copyleft limited to technicalities like 
embedding, static linking and big players with a 'big chest for legalities'?
Can small humble efforts like keyboards and input methods (for 
complicated charactersets and writing schemes) be dual licenced  without 
to much leagl work?

> (just for reference, Perl is dual licensed Artistic/GPL, Mozilla
> is dual licensed MPL/GPL
Is not MPL itself GPL compatible anyway? But I understand the concept.

> , MySQL is obviously dual licensed
> GPL/MySQL-Proprietary-License)
>
> Neither license affects the other, Perl, Mozilla, and MySQL can
> all be used as GPL software, you just ignore the other licenses.
Thanks. This is most helpful.

> (know what I mean?)
Yes, It will be good to know more as I work in areas where there is a 
huge positive response to free sofware .....*everyone hates* non-free 
software, even those who have provided solutions through them ;-)

Best regards,

Ramanan