Re: The QPL

[Peter S Galbraith <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>]

Brian Ristuccia wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 29, 1999 at 01:08:19PM -0500, Peter S Galbraith wrote:
> > 
> > He was almost ready to use the GPL, but I pointed out that once
> > people send in patches his work is no longer his alone.  He can't
> > turn around, modify the work and sell it without hunting through
> > for all patches and re-writing them.
> > 
> 
> Nothing in the GPL prevents an author from selling copies of his work, even
> when the work is combined with substantial patches or other software under
> the GPL. 

Nothing prevents him from selling copies _under the GPL_.  But he
cannot use the patches in a parallel project which is sold under
a different license.  Right?

Actually, when I re-read the QPL, perhaps it doesn't allow that
either.  The QPL seems to allow the upstream author to sell the
_same_ software under a different license, but perhaps not
incorporate the patches into something else.

Maybe the GPL is sufficient in this case, since the QPL may not
offer the protection I initially thought it did.  I guess the
author of gri has to evaluate the likehood of very cool patches
being contributed, and the likelihood that he would desire to
incorporate these patches into his potential-commercial parallel
project.

Thanks to all who posted (and are pehaps still posted) for your
enlightening comments.

Peter Galbraith <psg@debian.org>