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It also prevents YOU from extending the product in some way, embedding it in your proprietary stuff, and then keeping the extensions you wrote secret from the r
by mcherm 15y ago
It also prevents YOU from extending the product in some way, embedding it in your proprietary stuff, and then keeping the extensions you wrote secret from the rest of the world. Now, ME, I wouldn't be interested in keeping my extensions secret, because I don't really have anything to hide. But some folks, especially big companies, DO have something to hide. Perhaps, (not a real example) they mean to release a tablet with office software built in, but with a back-door built into the office software that allows it to secretly track all documents created and report back to the mother-ship. At least I HOPE that's not a real example.
- ars 15y agoActually that is not true. If you don't give someone the binary, you don't have to give the source. So you can, if you want, sell the binary to select people (and ask them nicely not to give it to anyone else), and you only have to give the source to those select people, but not to anyone else. The GPL does not require public source, only that the source follows the binary.
- pwaring 15y agoOr you can turn your product into a web application which you host, and ignore the GPL entirely if it's not the Affero version. The same might apply if you have a small client binary which you distribute the code to, but keep the server code (based on a GPL project) secret.
- rbanffy 15y agoWe should consider the ability to prevent evil like the one in your example a feature, not a bug. ;-)