IP: More on : FreeBSD vs. Linux (clearing up some common misconceptions)

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> X-Sender: >X-Sender: brett@localhost
> Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 18:26:07 -0600
> To: farber () cis upenn edu, ip-sub-1 () admin listbox com
> From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
> Subject: Re: IP: Re:  FreeBSD vs. Linux (clearing up some common
>  misconceptions)
>
> James Love writes:
>
> > One of the reasons that the GPL is having unexpected acceptance 
> among corporate interests
> > is that it protects firms from anticompetitive acts by rivals.
>
> Ironically, the GPL can easily be used to mount an anticompetitive act against
> a rival.
>
> Suppose we have two software companies, ASoft and BSoft, which 
> compete in some, but not
> all, product areas. ASoft decides to sponsor the creation of a GPLed 
> product which
> performs the same function as a product which ASoft does not make, 
> but upon which
> BSoft relies for a substantial portion of its revenue. The market 
> for BSoft's product is
> destroyed by the GPLed equivalent, diminishing the company's ability 
> to compete in
> ALL markets. The GPL is a particularly potent anti-competitive 
> weapon because, unlike the
> BSD license, it prohibits BSoft from incorporating and improving 
> upon the free, open
> source code. It must reinvent the wheel, while at the same time 
> attempting to compete
> with a product which is free -- the ultimate in predatory pricing.
>
> Sound like a wild flight of imagination? It isn't. Microsoft 
> executed a similar
> strategy when it released its free EMM386 memory manager with 
> Microsoft Windows 3.0.
> Competitor Quarterdeck, which sold a highly rated multitasking 
> environment called
> DESQview, derived the lion's share of its revenues from a memory 
> manager called QEMM.
> By gutting the market for QEMM with a free product, Microsoft 
> destroyed the revenue
> stream upon which Quarterdeck relied to promote DESQview, paving the way for
> a Windows monopoly.
>
> The rest is, of course, history.
>
> --Brett Glass