Re: Copy-Right/Left/Upways
On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, Angelo Masci wrote:
> Over the past three years I've been in the process of developing some
> software for which I attached a GPL.
> How can I ensure that I maintain full control over the software that I
> have authored?
> If at some point I decide that I've had enough of free loaders and want
> to retract the license what can I do?
The point of the GPL is that you can *not* retract the software from his
users. You can stop working on the software if you're fed up with it, or
you can change the licence and provide new versions of your software under
a more restrictive licence, but once you released a particular version
under the terms of the GPL, it stays free forever. The GPL is a guarantee
for the users, not for the developper.
If what you want is to retain control of your software, you should not
have to worry too much - if you do a good job as a maintainer, there is no
reason anyone would fork the development tree. But if you stop working on
this software and the users want new features, you can not prevent them
from implementing this feature. Your software is like a child - you will
have some control over it if you care about it, but if you don't it will
just live its independant life. This is the point of the GPL and this is
how it should be :)
--
Michel "Walken" LESPINASSE - Development Engineer at Wind River Systems
walken@wrs.com - http://www.via.ecp.fr/~walken/
DNA is the software of Life.
Did you realize you can have that much fun for a code merge ?
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