Re: Is the proprietary camp winning ?

Ramanraj K wrote:

> 
> If authors do not make claims to royalty either under the GPL or under
> Section  53A,  then  it  indeed  shows their  magnanimity  and  strong
> aversion to  copyrights - characterised  rightly as evil  by Macaulay.
> Free Software developers releasing  their works under the GPL, legally
> oblige lincensees to give back code  in return if they modify the work
> - but never  any money.

Modification of GPL'ed code or even mixing it with proprietary code when 
no redistribution to a third party happens is a right of use that is 
granted by the license. The restrictions only kick in when 
redistribution happens.

> Free Software  is a charity  - let there  please not be  any confusion
> about its  true nature.  The  author makes a voluntary  dedication and
> any organisation  focused solely on  Free Software would largely  be a
> charitable organisation.

Not necessarily. Example: Mozilla Corporation.

.  Trademarks are
> proprietary  in nature,  and have  nothing to  do with  Free Software.

Copyrights like trademarks are also designed to give the authors 
monopoly rights. Its balanced by licenses which grant broader rights to 
users. So its not quite meaningful to disclaim trademarks as proprietary.

> Suppose linux  kernel developers say, well redistribute  the code, but
> do so without calling it 'linux',  then how would do market know it is
> 'linux' that  is being packaged and  sold?  It is quite  silly to make
> such  claims and  such terms  and conditions  only tend  to  give Free
> Software  a  false proprietary  color.   Every  time  a free  software
> developer fall into the  "trademark" trap, the propreitary camp scores
> a point.

Trademarks are source identifiers. . There is a limited amount of "fair 
use" rights which would prevent the Linux kernel developers from 
outright prohibiting end users from calling it "Linux". So such a 
scenario is legally impossible.

> There are a number of  legitimate ways of using trademarks, but naming
> the computer program under a free  license with a trademark is not one
> of them.

There are a number of well known Free software projects which enforce 
trademarks strongly and they have very good reasons to do so. This 
include preventing abuse. A Free software program is determined by the 
copyright license and not the trademarks.

Rahul
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