From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9b30240b5a381bbf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-08-23 18:58:06 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Software Economics was RE: Ada 95 for an ARM-based bare board? Date: 23 Aug 2002 18:58:06 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <5ee5b646.0208231758.88350c1@posting.google.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.232.38.49 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1030154286 27763 127.0.0.1 (24 Aug 2002 01:58:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 24 Aug 2002 01:58:06 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:28356 Date: 2002-08-24T01:58:06+00:00 List-Id: "Robert C. Leif" wrote in message news:... > However, I am totally > against anything that would decrease the value of intellectual property. Bob Leif often writes bizarre things, but this thread is pretty off the wall even by that criterion. First point, ACT is definitely in favor of maximizing the value of its property. A company the size of ours (Ada Core and ACT/Europe between them have over 40 full time employees) needs a considerable level of income to support our activities and the ongoing development of GNAT and its surrouding tools. Second point, the only difference between Microsoft and ACT is the license we use. We both sell licensed copyrighted software. We use the GPL as our license because we think it maximizes the value of the product to our customers. We think restrictive licenses such as those used by Microsoft (and presumably by Bob Leif if in fact he is in the business of selling software -- that's not clear to me) are bad business because they don't provide the customers with what they need. We think it's good business to provide the customers what they need. And the result of providing customers what they need is that we prosper. So we are using the GPL *because* it allows us to support our activities. BL makes the absurd statement that GNAT is a monopoly. This shows a level of unawareness of the market that is truly staggering. In fact there is fierce competition in the Ada market, as anyone who is in fact involved in the market as a vendor or a procurer of Ada products knows perfectly well. And that's the last you will here from me in this thread, since I can't imagine it going in a sensible direction. Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies