On Mon, Jul 19, 2004 at 12:09:40PM -0400, Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote: > David Nusinow <david_nusinow@verizon.net> writes: > > On Sat, Jul 17, 2004 at 02:02:03AM -0400, Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote: > >> You brought up promises as fees, not me. The fees compelled by the > >> QPL are in the form of licenses to the initial author and distribution > >> to him, not promises to obey the license. > > Actually it was MJ Ray who applied the promisary definition to the idea of a > > fee, and I was trying to see whether or not that definition really seems to > > hold with our interpretation of the freeness. As it is, I see that definition > > as conflicting with any sort of non-public domain software because it implies > > some sort of behavioral constraints upon the lessor (which constitute a > > promise). What then defines the term fee such that the GPL does not demand one > > where the QPL does? > A fee is a thing of value which must be given in payment for some > return. That is, I must incur a cost in paying it, and the recipient > should benefit from it. > For example, the QPL's demand for a permissive license for the initial > author is a fee. The license has value, and I may not make > modifications without granting it. I incur a cost, loss of control. > The recipient benefits greatly. > The GPL's requirement that I distribute source with any binaries I > distribute is not a fee. My distribution of source with binaries has > negligible cost to me, so is not a fee. By this reasoning, if the QPL said you were allowed to charge the author for the cost of sending him the source, it would be free because the cost to you is nominally the same as the cost in the GPL. I don't believe this is true. > The GPL's requirement that I give a license to any recipient does have > a cost to me, but I receive no benefit from it, so it is not a fee. Crossed pronouns here? You *do* receive benefit from it -- you receive the license. The reason it's not a fee is that it's not paid to the licensor, not because you don't get anything in exchange for it. -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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