Re: [TCLUG:17728] Motif has gone opensource!

[Daniel Taylor <dante@plethora.net>]

On Wed, 17 May 2000, Callum Lerwick wrote:

> > > Isn't that what I was saying?  You aren't likely to be hired to write a
> > > commercial version of your software if you released your software opensource
> > > GPL.  You would have to rewrite your code instead of use your existing code
> > > base (provided they want to use a restricted commercial license - safely
> > > assumed in most cases).  Under BSD, you can use the code you started with
> > > and then extend it for commercial purposes and use whatever license you like
> > > for it.  The original code remains BSD for the rest of the world to use.
> > 
> > Wrong. As long as you maintain full copyright you may release your code
> > under _any_ license you wish at any time. GPL only becomes a problem
> > for relicensing in cases like the Linux kernel where copyright is
> > shared (I know that I wouldn't give my approval in that case, and there
> > are many others who would not as well).
> 
> But doesn't the existing released code remain under whatever license it
> was under? Ex: OpenSSH derives from the last free release of ssh... Tons
> of others I can't think of...
>
Yes. But you can sell indulgences to the fat corps if you want to
make money that way. As long as you are the sole copyright holder. 


Daniel Taylor                Embedded and custom Linux integration.
dante@plethora.net           (612)747-1609