Re: [Ekiga-list] Ekiga use license (commercial use?) & Ekiga/Diamondcard software questions

[Yannick <sevmek free fr>]

Le mercredi 16 octobre 2013 à 14:13 -0400, Stuart Gathman a écrit :
> On 10/16/2013 01:55 PM, zanaglen aol com wrote:
>
> > So, then, where the license says "The act of running the Program is
> > not restricted" is where it grants the rights for anyone to use the
> > software to make & receive phone calls for commercial purposes? (in
> > order to make a profit)
> >
> > Do I have that correct?

Yes. This is generally referred as the "freedom 0" by Richard Stallman,
the creator of this license.

This page explain the philosophy of the GPL in common words:
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
"The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
../..
“Free software” does not mean “noncommercial”. A free program must be
available for commercial use, commercial development, and commercial
distribution."

Side note : people in general start counting from 1, but in the computer
field people have the habit to start from 0.
> > (To be clear, in my above question, I'm not referring to making
> > money off of the actual software itself, in any way.)

You also can make money with Ekiga itself, but in this case you need to
comply to some rules explained in the GPL. The purpose of those rules is
to protect the freedom of all users of Ekiga, including their freedom to
use it for commercial purpose. 

The whole purpose of the GPL is to prevent anyone to mess with what
you're doing with Ekiga as a user, your activity being commercial or
not. That's the reason why the GPL do not talk much about the usage of
the software. Simply put, the more a license speaks about the usage of
the software, the more you are restricted as a user.
> > I'm not sure what is meant by "output from the Program" in the above
> > license quote.  Would someone be able to interpret and briefly
> > summarize what that means?  (I want to understand whether or not
> > that part applies to me.)
> Output from the program refers to meta-programs.  :-)  I.e. programs
> like compilers, code generators, etc. - software that writes software.
> As a (not real) example, suppose Ekiga had a button labelled "Copy
> Me!", which created a nice installer for ekiga to send to someone
> else.  (That is a trivial - in theory - example of software that
> writes software.)  That copy would be subject to GPL.
>
> Note that there is *no* restriction on selling, or making a profit by
> distributing the program.   You simply *must* provide the source code
> (free or at nominal charge) when doing so.  If you were to get ekiga
> all configured, with a really easy installer, then you could
> conceivably sell it - provided you include, or make easily available,
> the source for ekiga *and* any modifications to ekiga.  Of course, a
> competitor can use the source to create a competing product - so you
> have to have some other factor that would make customers want to buy
> *yours*.  Maybe your support or warranty - as suggested in the licence
> itself.  Perhaps you have a book or manual to go with it that details
> your sales techniques.
>
> The GPL is *not* against profit.  It is against using restricted
> source code as a "lock-in".  GPL software can be, and is part of
> profitable businesses.  They just need other sorts of "lock-in".
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