John Hasler wrote:
Maybe it'd be an idea to put in a bug report to the crew drawing up the new GPL agreement, and request that in the growing incidence of this sort of arrangement happening, that an itemised invoice is issued in order to ensure ethical trading.He builds computers and installs Debian on them. They are his product. He can sell them for whatever the market will bear. He must comply with the licenses on the software in Debian, but none of them limit the price he can charge.
I have noobjection to anybody charging for hardware, labour time, or anything else that they may have bought and are in the process of onselling. It is this factor that predetermines possession, and the ethical transactional status. But I would object to anybody appropriating Debian as *their* possession, putting on what would have to be an exorbitant markup, and in this way, 'profiting' by it.
This is misappropriation, pure and simple.Anything else is intellectual ninjutsu, which can be somewhat mentally damaging.
As far as 'limits' go, I believe there is a restraining factor in that 'copying' to a CD, for example, may incur reasonable recuperative cost, yes/no? Perhaps we could go further and set a markup % on raw materials costs, to prevent extortion?
Or would this severely damage business potential in the vicinity of One Horse Hill?
P.S. Don't Hasle me!