[Haskell-cafe] NewBinary: What is the license?

[Murray Gross]

On Sat, 8 Oct 2005, Joel Reymont wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> NewBinary is based on nhc98's Binary and nhc98 is GPL. Does this mean  
> that I cannot use NewBinary in commercial software?
> 

Because I really don't want to get involved in the details here, I'd just
like to point out that GPL does not preclude software from being
commercial. You may charge for GPL'ed code as you see fit. However, others
who are then permitted to modify and/or distribute a piece of GPL'ed code
may choose not to charge for it. 

Thus, the question you are faced with if you wish to commercialize a piece
of GPL'ed code is not whether or not you can do it, but whether or not
you should--is your program going to become so popular that you won't be
able to sell any against freely distributed versions, or can you provide
added value in some service that will convince potential customers to
cough up your price (see, e.g., RedHat, Suse, Mandriva, Mysql, etc.)? 


> I'm afraid I just wasted a few days of work then :-(.
> 

Only if you have misunderstood the GPL. 

Best of luck in your endeavor, 

Murray Gross