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Surprisingly, Open Source Companies want to make Money

posted 08:50PM Dec 13, 2006 with tags business gpl money opensource by Lars Trieloff

Andrew Cowie writes about the politics and economics of dual-licencing and cites one of the ever ongoing discussions how Open Source Companies dare to dual-license their GPL'd software in order to make money:
I advise clients about Open Source, and one of the questions that inevitably comes up in the discussion about people who dual-licence their software is, “but it’s GPL! How dare they charge for it! How can they? %#@$^&!” Sadly, the people asking that question in such an arrogant and demanding tone have missed the point. Open Source is not communism! There is no obligation to contribute what you own and no one taking it from you by force, stealing it for their own benefit while justifying their actions in the Holy Name of the People.
Open Source is neither about communism, nor giving away your software without conditions. The main idea is to encourage sharing and people who cannot or will not share, have to give back by paying money.

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