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List:       gphoto-devel
Subject:    [gphoto-devel] Re: Introduction and Comments
From:       Richard Stallman <rms () santafe ! edu>
Date:       2000-08-15 0:55:06
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      If gPhoto works and is free, nobody can compete with it.
    Look at Apache and you will see what I mean.

Apache is a very good example to illustrate the potential problem that
Ole and other Free Software activists among us are concerned about.

It is hard for anyone to "compete" with Apache, if that means starting
from scratch.

But at the same time, non-free extended versions of Apache are common,
and many of the sites "using Apache" are actually using them.  These
non-free versions of Apache are competing with the free version, and
they can take advantage of all the code in Apache to do it.  In
effect, Apache is its own proprietary software competition.

In the case of gPhoto, there are two ways that this could happen.  One
is by through extended versions (perhaps with additional high-level
features) which are not free.  The other is by through non-free
drivers that link with gPhoto.

These things happen with Apache because Apache's license permits
them--it is not a copyleft license.  Using the LGPL for gPhoto would
also permit these things to happen.  Non-free software developers
would use our own work to compete with us--but we would not be able to
use their work to compete with them.  By using a weak license, we
would be making ourselves weak.

The best way to stay strong use the GPL as the license for gPhoto.
The GPL was designed specifically to protect against this problem.
Developers of camera drivers got gPhoto should also keep them under
the GPL, so that they are available only for the Free World.

Please see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pragmatic.html and
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html for more about this
issue.

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