Re: Hey Terekhov: Wallace lost. Who'd guess.... ;)

[Alan Mackenzie]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> wrote on Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:59:39 +0100:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> [...]
>> So you feel unable to face the facts.  

> The fact is that the GPL price-fixes IP at zero. The fact is that zero is
> below cost of IP creation and hence is predatory. As for the rest,

Whatever "IP" might mean.

The fact is, I can go out and buy SuSE Linux, but it'll cost me about 70
Euros.  I believe Red Hat Linux costs about the same.  Last summer, I
bought Debian Sarge GNU/Linux for 9 Euros.  It was cheaper because it was
just two DVDs, had no paper documentation and came without support.  I
could also have downloaded a perfectly good Linux "for nothing", if I had
a high enough capacity internet connection.

It would appear that this "price fixing" supposedly practiced by IBM and
co is ineffective, since SuSE (Novell), Red Hat and so on are prospering.
How come this price fixing hasn't driven them out of business?

I think you've misunderstood the term "predatory", as in predatory
pricing.  "Predator" is a zoological term, describing an animal that
hunts and kills another so as to eat it.  By analogy, "predatory pricing"
is that done specifically to destroy another company.  This isn't the aim
of GPL software, and since GPL software is (in effect) sold at a fair
price (e.g. 70 Euros for a set), it's not its effect either.

> Judge Tinder clearly erred.

Unlikely.  He's a judge, after all, and thus an acknowledeged expert on
the law.  I think it's far more likely that you have erred.

> alexander.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").