Re: New BK License Problem?

Mark Mielke
2002-10-06T19:17:17Z

On Sat, Oct 05, 2002 at 09:48:25PM -0300, Rik van Riel wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, Murray J. Root wrote:
> > On Sat, Oct 05, 2002 at 05:10:33PM +0400, Hans Reiser wrote:
> > > Seems like a pretty straightforward violation of the anti-trust laws,
> > Worse - it's also illegal to refuse to do business with someone
> > based on who their employer is, in most states.
> Bitkeeper isn't refusing business. They just refuse to give away
> their product for free to competitors, but these competitors can
> still ask Bitkeeper for the normal commercial license ...

For perspective on where Larry's license may work against him...
(NOTE: Larry: I'm not telling you what you can or cannot put in your
license... I am only offering perspective...)

At Nortel I am the software architect for a source management system
based on top of ClearCase that our department develops. One of the
concepts that we have implemented on top of ClearCase is change sets.

Under the wording of the license, I believe that I am not allowed to
use BK for free.

>From the perspective of Linux kernel development, it means that I
cannot submit patches using BK unless I pay for BK, which I do not
intend to do. As I am not an active kernel developer (I am spending
time familiarizing myself with it at the current point in time), my
personal case does not hamper Linux kernel development, however, I do
not believe it is a stretch to imagine somebody in a similar position
as me, wanting to actively submit patches to Linux. As a professional
in the source management field, I am very aware of the benefits of
using an effective source management system, and would find it
difficult (psychologically and practically speaking) to maintain a
large set of patches outside of BK.

>From the perspective of BK commercial interests, since I am not able
to use BK for free, and I do not intend to spend money out of my own
pocket to purchase the right to use BK, I am limited in the manner in
which I could encourage people within Nortel to consider BK as a
creditable alternative to ClearCase either as a full solution, or as a
solution that we customized. This point is dampened by the fact that
Nortel is (still) very large, and would need more reasons that 'it
works better' to invest money into significantly altering their source
management infrastructure, however, I think the point still stands. If
BK truly is as better than ClearCase as some of us may feel that it is,
the point definately stands.

In any case, I'm confident that if somebody such as myself presented a
proper case to Larry, that allowed Larry to be comfortable enough to
believe that 'somebody' would not use the free license to steal
Larry's customers (present and future) without having paid for a
license, he would consider doing something about it and making an
exception. Larry isn't Satan, even though he dares to sell 'almost
Open Source' software.

I'm only offering some perspective... :-)

mark

--
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