Re: OReilly on Allchin vs RMS

[Arun Sharma <arun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Mar 02, 2001 at 02:41:05PM +0530, Binand Raj S. wrote:
> Arun Sharma forced the electrons to say:
> > I'm sure if it becomes a big enough issue to be tested in the courts,
> > the US courts will certainly rule that using GPL for tax payer money
> > is illegal.
> 
> I'm not sure I understand this point - if the taxpayer's money was used to
> develop software, then isn't it morally wrong (if not legally) to allow
> a few corporations to take the software developed using the taxpayer's
> money and sell the same back to him/her at inflated prices? Without
> letting the taxpayer see/understand what his/her money has been used
> for? Am I typing clearly here?

The key is in the phrase "sell the same back". What the evil corporation
is doing is to "sell their changes back". They are doing nothing to
the freeness/openness of the original code that was written using taxpayer's
money.

What's morally wrong about selling a new light bulb that improves upon
Edison's design ?

	-Arun