Re: Software relicensing, how is it done ?

["Tristan Van Berkom" <tvb gnome org>]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 3:30 PM, Richard M. Stallman <rms gnu org> wrote:
[...]
> As free software developers we naturally feel good to see our own
> programs in wider use.  But what is really important is for free
> software to replace proprietary software.  We can achieve more for
> freedom if we focus on the deeper and more important long-term goal.
>
Hi,
    I dont see how I can agree that entering in direct competition with anyone
who wants to make a dollar from a software solution is going to bring
us to that long-term goal. Frankly, the company I formerly worked for,
chose gtk+ for its C object orented model, and it was possible because
of the LGPL licence. I would never had been paid to originally work on
Glade for the few months that Glade was my job assignment, I maybe would
never have heard of Glade, since then I can count the number of substantialy
large contributions on one hand, and half of those are from vendors, or
contractors working for vendors.

Writing software is hard work, people rightfully want to get paid for
it, I hope that free software is the best software, and continue to believe
that we need to do it together, leverage people who are paid for their
work to make free software better, so that all projects can benefit, the
important part is to not get effected when commercial softwares have an
edge, and continue to slowly write better, free software.

I dont feel offended that someone else may write a frontend that
uses libgladeui and makes money on 6 years or so of my own work,
I offer it freely, and don't feel comfortable myself to be denied the
same freedom I would offer a user of the libgladeui library.

Respectfully,
          -Tristan