[Mono-list] Examples of proprietary code developed on Mono

[Jonathan Pryor]

On Mon, 2005-04-04 at 14:36 +0200, Julien Gilli wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-04-04 at 06:48 -0400, Jonathan Pryor wrote:
> > On Mon, 2005-04-04 at 12:33 +0200, Julien Gilli wrote:
> 
> > Generally speaking, if it's non-commercial it would be considered to be
> > proprietary, even if source code is present, as the non-commercial
> > aspect greatly limits the target audience (why work on something you
> > can't possibly sell?).
> 
> Well, it seems to me that many FOSS projects do it. 

No, all FOSS licenses are commercially-acceptable.  It's part of the
very definition of open-source software.

As I mentioned, a commercial license means that the code *can* be sold
and used in a commercial application.  If FOSS software couldn't be
commercial, then Red Hat/Suse/Ubuntu/etc. couldn't legally sell their
product *anywhere*, period, claims of selling "support" notwithstanding.
The fact that all these companies do sell their software shows that a
commercial license is being used.

For an example of a non-commercial license, see the University of Utah
Public License:

	http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gk/teem/txt/LICENSE.txt

Section 2.1(d) states:

        (d) No License is granted by UNIVERSITY for the Commercial Use
        of Covered Code under this License.

Compare this with GPL Section 1:

        You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy...

See also The Open Source Definition, section 1 (Free Redistribution):

        The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving
        away the software as a component of an aggregate software
        distribution containing programs from several different sources.

In short, FOSS == Commercial && ! Proprietary, as I stated before.  If
they didn't permit Commercial distribution, no one would use it.

> >   I haven't seen much non-commercial software anywhere.
> 
> What does make such FOSS projects as gcc, the autotools, GNOME, Apache,
> OpenLDAP, and so on inherently commercial to you ?

The fact that I have the option to *sell* these tools if I so choose.

It's the difference between Cheapbytes selling Fedora Core CDs vs.
needing to go to a not-for-profit to get a CD, assuming that I could
purchase the software anywhere.

It's the difference between being able to go to my local store and
purchase something vs. not being able to find it offline.

It goes to the very definition of the word Commercial:

        Of or pertaining to commerce; carrying on or occupied with
        commerce or trade;
        - "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"

 - Jon