From: Jeremy Henty <onepoint@...>
Date: 2007-10-15T13:35:03+09:00
Subject: Re: MIT vs. Ruby/GPL License

On 2007-10-15, Jon Lambert <jlsysinc@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jeremy Henty wrote:
>> 
>> The GPL gives the *user* *complete* freedom. It restricts *other*
>> activities, such as distributing a derived work, but it imposes no
>> restrictions on simply using the software.
>
> Using that limited definition of user, one who "simply uses the
> software", most proprietary licenses also give the user complete
> freedom.

Including the freedom to install and run the software *without* paying
anything for it?  I think not.  And at my last office job I didn't see
any proprietary software whose license did not restrict either the
number of installation hosts or the number (total or concurrent) of
users.  GPL software has no such usage restrictions.

Regards,

Jeremy Henty