MegaSquirt and GNU

[Kevin Wright]

...and lo, thus spake steve ravet on 1/31/02:
>What are the advantages of this arrangement?
>
>* no more bickering.  Theft isn't possible since the design is freely
>available.  This is the main reason we adopted this policy.
>
>* designer is allowed to make money from his design.  There's nothing
>wrong with supporting your hobby (or your family) by making goods and
>services available to others.
>
>* development is encouraged.  People who sell GPL products for profit
>are motivated to improve them, and those improvements are available to
>everyone -- even the people who download the free versions without
>paying a dime.
>
>* slimeballs are discouraged.  Since the design is freely available, the
>only thing that someone can charge money for is tangible items (boards,
>parts kits, etc.), and support after the sale.  You can't charge much
>over cost for tangibles, because anyone else can go buy the parts
>themselves.  And a slimeball won't be able to support the product, so
>there's no money available there either.
>
>This model works, and it works on a large scale -- AMD has donated
>hardware to the Linux community to make sure they'll support the
>Sledgehammer chip, Red Hat donates hardware to GNU to help improve the
>free software that they sell.  Even companies like Compaq and Dell, who
>most would think are in league with Hell's remote office in Redmond,
>sell GNU products and provide support and development back to the free
>community.

Thank you for clarifying that. It begins to make more sense to me now.
I think an important thing to note is that with this model, you can 
choose to directly support only the product purchased - those who 
build their own are on their own. Basic support could be given in the 
form of FAQ, discussion board, or whatever, but direct call-them-up 
tech support is part of the purchase package.

One question - if the product is appropriated by the hypothetical 
slimeball, is he required to note where the original design came 
from? Something like a copyright acknowledgement without the fees?

krw
-- 
Kevin Wright
krwright at wankel.net
krwright at ev1.net
http://www.wankel.net/~krwright

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