Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)
To   : comp.programming
From : Arthur J. O'Dwyer
Date : Wed Sep 28 2005 12:44 pm


On Wed, 28 Sep 2005, Randy Howard wrote:
>
> Willem wrote
>> It's not black/white anyway, a vendor could, for example, provide a
>> contract whereby he commits to giving his customers the source code
>> of a product when he stops providing support for that product.
>
> That would mean that Adobe would be forced to release source
> code for Photoshop 6 or so, as soon as they start saying there
> won't be bug fixes for an old, out-of-date version.

   Right. Seems like a good idea to me. Id managed to do something similar 
with Doom and Quake, for example. The major difference between Id and 
Adobe seems to be that when a game company releases a new game in a
franchise, there's usually a stunning improvement in graphics, design, 
etc.; when a business-software company releases a new product in an 
application franchise, the difference is sometimes hardly noticeable, 
except in the "lock-in" features (e.g., save-file format).

> What probably makes more sense is a company saying they would
> put source code in escrow somehow, in the event that they should
> fold, or completely discontinue to the product line.  However,
> if they continue to sell the product at newer versions, that you
> are not willing to upgrade to over time, that's your problem.

   Or they could just not release the source code at all. If you're going 
to screw over your customers, why do things halfway?

-Arthur

-- 
A: Everyone, it seems.
Q: Who has, because of increased media scrutiny, taken to qualifying 
almost every statement?
  ---Russell Beland in the Style Invitational, 8/28

.