www/philosophy selling-exceptions.html

[Yavor Doganov]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Yavor Doganov <yavor>   10/01/11 14:51:17

Modified files:
        philosophy     : selling-exceptions.html 

Log message:
        Minor boilerplate compliance changes.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/selling-exceptions.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.3&r2=1.4

Patches:
Index: selling-exceptions.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/selling-exceptions.html,v
retrieving revision 1.3
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -b -r1.3 -r1.4
--- selling-exceptions.html     7 Jan 2010 23:08:10 -0000       1.3
+++ selling-exceptions.html     11 Jan 2010 14:51:12 -0000      1.4
@@ -16,11 +16,11 @@
 license exceptions are mixed. Clearly it is possible to develop
 powerful and complex software packages under the GNU GPL without
 selling exceptions, and we do this. MySQL can be developed this way
-too. However, selling exceptions has been used by MySQL
-developers. Who should decide whether to continue this? I don't think
-it is wise to give major decisions about a free software project to a
-large proprietary competitor, which might naturally prefer that the
-project develop less rather than more.</em></p>
+too.  However, selling exceptions has been used by MySQL developers.
+Who should decide whether to continue this?  I don't think it is wise
+to give major decisions about a free software project to a large
+proprietary competitor, which might naturally prefer that the project
+develop less rather than more.</em></p>
 
 <p><em>One thing that makes no sense at all is the idea of changing
 the license of MySQL to something non-copyleft. That would eliminate
@@ -30,18 +30,20 @@
 
 <h3>On Selling Exceptions to the GNU GPL</h3>
 
-<p>When I co-signed the <a
-href="/philosophy/ec_letter_mysql_oct19.pdf">letter objecting to
-Oracle's planned purchase of MySQL</a><sup><a href="#footnote">1</a></sup> 
(along with the rest of Sun), some free
-software supporters were surprised that I approved of the practice of
-selling license exceptions which the MySQL developers have used.  They
-expected me to condemn the practice outright.  This article explains
-what I think of the practice, and why.</p>
+<p>When I co-signed
+the <a href="/philosophy/ec_letter_mysql_oct19.pdf">letter objecting
+to Oracle's planned purchase of
+MySQL</a><sup><a href="#footnote">1</a></sup> (along with the rest of
+Sun), some free software supporters were surprised that I approved of
+the practice of selling license exceptions which the MySQL developers
+have used.  They expected me to condemn the practice outright.  This
+article explains what I think of the practice, and why.</p>
 
 <p>Selling exceptions means that the copyright holder of the code
 releases it to the public under a free software license, then lets
 customers pay for permission to use the same code under different
-terms, for instance allowing its inclusion in proprietary applications.</p>
+terms, for instance allowing its inclusion in proprietary
+applications.</p>
 
 <p>We must distinguish the practice of selling exceptions from something
 crucially different: proprietary extensions or proprietary versions of
@@ -65,21 +67,21 @@
 Completely free operating systems therefore could not include Qt, so
 they could not use KDE either.</p>
 
-<p>In 1998, the management of TrollTech recognized that they could make
-Qt free software and continue charging for permission to embed it in
-proprietary software.  I do not recall whether the suggestion came
+<p>In 1998, the management of TrollTech recognized that they could
+make Qt free software and continue charging for permission to embed it
+in proprietary software.  I do not recall whether the suggestion came
 from me, but I certainly was happy to see the change, which made it
 possible to use Qt and thus KDE in the free software world.</p>
 
-<p>Initially, they used their own license, the Q Public License (QPL) --
-quite restrictive as free software licenses go, and incompatible with
-the GNU GPL.  Later they switched to the GNU GPL; I think I had explained
-to them that it would work for the purpose.</p>
-
-<p>Selling exceptions depends fundamentally on using a copyleft license,
-such as the GNU GPL, for the free software release.  A copyleft
-license permits embedding in a larger program only if the whole
-combined program is released under that license; this is how it
+<p>Initially, they used their own license, the Q Public License
+(QPL)&mdash;quite restrictive as free software licenses go, and
+incompatible with the GNU GPL.  Later they switched to the GNU GPL; I
+think I had explained to them that it would work for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Selling exceptions depends fundamentally on using a copyleft
+license, such as the GNU GPL, for the free software release.  A
+copyleft license permits embedding in a larger program only if the
+whole combined program is released under that license; this is how it
 ensures extended versions will also be free.  Thus, users that want to
 make the combined program proprietary need special permission.  Only
 the copyright holder can grant that, and selling exceptions is one
@@ -96,9 +98,9 @@
 <p>If that implication is valid, it would also apply to releasing the
 same program under a noncopyleft free software license, such as the
 X11 license.  That also permits such embedding.  So either we have to
-conclude that it's wrong to release anything under the X11 license --
-a conclusion I find unacceptably extreme -- or reject this
-implication.  Using a noncopyleft license is weak, and usually an
+conclude that it's wrong to release anything under the X11
+license&mdash;a conclusion I find unacceptably extreme&mdash;or reject
+this implication.  Using a noncopyleft license is weak, and usually an
 inferior choice, but it's not wrong.</p>
 
 <p>In other words, selling exceptions permits some embedding in
@@ -106,31 +108,32 @@
 If this doesn't make the X11 license unacceptable, it doesn't make
 selling exceptions unacceptable.</p>
 
-<p>There are three reasons why the FSF doesn't practice selling exceptions.
-One is that it doesn't lead to the FSF's goal: assuring freedom for
-each user of our software.  That's what we wrote the GNU GPL for, and
-the way to achieve this most thoroughly is to release under GPL
-version 3-or-later and not allow embedding in proprietary software.
-Selling exceptions wouldn't achieve this, just as release under the
-X11 license wouldn't.  So normally we don't do either of those things.
-We release under the GPL only.</p>
+<p>There are three reasons why the FSF doesn't practice selling
+exceptions.  One is that it doesn't lead to the FSF's goal: assuring
+freedom for each user of our software.  That's what we wrote the GNU
+GPL for, and the way to achieve this most thoroughly is to release
+under GPL version 3-or-later and not allow embedding in proprietary
+software.  Selling exceptions wouldn't achieve this, just as release
+under the X11 license wouldn't.  So normally we don't do either of
+those things.  We release under the GPL only.</p>
 
 <p>Another reason we release only under the GPL is so as not to permit
 proprietary extensions that would present practical advantages over
 our free programs.  Users for whom freedom is not a value might choose
 those non-free versions rather than the free programs they are based
-on -- and lose their freedom.  We don't want to encourage that.</p>
+on&mdash;and lose their freedom.  We don't want to encourage that.</p>
 
 <p>But there are occasional cases where, for specific reasons of
 strategy, we decide that using a more permissive license on a certain
 program is better for the cause of freedom.  In those cases, we
 release the program to everyone under that permissive license.</p>
 
-<p>This is because of another ethical principle that the FSF follows: to
-treat all users the same.  An idealistic campaign for freedom should
-not discriminate, so the FSF is committed to giving the same license
-to all users.  The FSF never sells exceptions; whatever license or
-licenses we release a program under, that is available to everyone.</p>
+<p>This is because of another ethical principle that the FSF follows:
+to treat all users the same.  An idealistic campaign for freedom
+should not discriminate, so the FSF is committed to giving the same
+license to all users.  The FSF never sells exceptions; whatever
+license or licenses we release a program under, that is available to
+everyone.</p>
 
 <p>But we need not insist that companies follow that principle.  I
 consider selling exceptions an acceptable thing for a company to do,
@@ -139,8 +142,8 @@
 
 <h4>Footnotes</h4>
 
-<p id="footnote">This is a local copy of document from <a
-href="http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/ec_letter_mysql_oct19.pdf";>its
+<p id="footnote">This is a local copy of the document
+from <a 
href="http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/ec_letter_mysql_oct19.pdf";>its
 original location</a>.</p>
 
 </div>
@@ -174,10 +177,9 @@
 or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300,
 San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.</p>
 
-<p>
-Updated:
+<p>Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2010/01/07 23:08:10 $
+$Date: 2010/01/11 14:51:12 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>
@@ -185,21 +187,25 @@
 <div id="translations">
 <h4>Translations of this page</h4>
 
-<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical by language code. -->
-<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is German. -->
-<!-- Write the language name in its own language (Deutsch) in the text. -->
-<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
-<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
-<!--  - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
-<!--  - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
-<!--  - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
-<!--  to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
-<!-- Please also check you have the language code right; see: -->
-<!-- http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php -->
-<!-- If the 2-letter ISO 639-1 code is not available, -->
-<!-- use the 3-letter ISO 639-2. -->
-<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities. -->
-
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical by language code.
+     Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is German.
+     Write the language name in its own language (Deutsch) in the text.
+     If you add a new language here, please
+     advise address@hidden and add it to
+      - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html
+      - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway"
+      - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias
+      to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases
+     Please also check you have the language code right; see:
+     http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
+     If the 2-letter ISO 639-1 code is not available,
+     use the 3-letter ISO 639-2.
+     Please use W3C normative character entities. -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/selling-exceptions.html">English</a>&nbsp;[en]</li>
+</ul>
 </div>
 </div>
 </body>