Re: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in closed source drivers?

Marco Monteiro
2003-01-03T16:29:03Z

On Fri, 2003-01-03 at 16:16, David Schwartz wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:51:04 +0000, Andrew Walrond wrote:
>
> >Yes but....
>
> >I develop computer games. The last one I did took a team of 35 people 2
> >years and cost $X million to develop.
>
> >Please explain how I could do this as free software, while still feeding
> >my people? Am I a bad person charging for my work?
>
> >Really - I want to understand so I too can join this merry band of happy
> >people giving everything away for free!
>
> You can't with the GPL, because it presents you with a "take it or leave it"
> package deal. But you could with a different license.
>
> What you do is you base your game off of whatever open source code gets you
> the furthest. The game itself, of course, is closed source. After your first
> few months of sales, you contribute some of the code you wrote back to the
> open source community.
>
> Why shouldn't you? It hurts you not one bit and it's free publicity. Heck,
> after a few year, maybe you open source the whole game.
>
> The next person to write a game can start where you left off to some extent.
> He can develop a better game for less money, and he can contribute more code
> back to the community. Eventually, there may be enough code in the comnunity
> to develop such complex games entirely open source.
>
> However, with a license like the GPL, every game has to be developed on a
> proprietary base. You simply can't afford to put any money into an open
> source base. So every game has to start back from square one, or the most
> advanced proprietary base that can be found.
>
> Everybody loses except the person who makes the proprietary base or engine
> you started with. I think working to make all software better and cheaper is
> much more noble goal than working to arm twist other people into giving you
> their code.
>
> And the best part is, you can work to strengthen fair use, first sale, and
> oppose the validity of shrink wrap licenses. You can argue for a narrower
> definition of a derived work. In fact, you can at least *try* to win the
> legal war.
>
> DS
>
>

That is not right. The problem is that all people think that you can't
sell a game if it is Free Software. If the game is good you can. People
buy paintings and public domain classic music...

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--
Marco Monteiro

"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."
--Sean O'Casey