Re: GNU licenses

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   >    Perhaps, if I was planning a commercial project. Of course if
   >    I was making a program that I had no profit plans for
   >    whatsoever, nothing, I wouldn't mind GPLing it.
   >
   > The GNU GPL doesn't prohibit commerical explotation of software;
   > infact if a license does not allows such explotation it is
   > considered non-free.

   I want to maximize profit, as I _need_ this money. By the way, can
   one make decent money selling open-source GNU software? How good an
   income can you get? If it's good then maybe GNU isn't as bad as I
   think.

GNU software is not open source, it is free software.  The open source
movement is a completely different movement, please do not confuse the
two.  You can make money making free software, G10 works on the GNU
Privacy Guard, there are several consulatant firms that do free
software exclusivley, for example the maintainer of the GNU Shishi
project.  Daniel from the looks gets paid for doing free software
work.  RMS made his liviving for the first few years by selling tapes
of Emacs and adding features for a fee.  Use your imagination.

   >    Everyone's been saying that I've got all rights to MY ORIGINAL
   >    CODE but I don't in this case!
   >
   > You have the rights to your own code, what you do not have the
   > right to is the other persons code which is licensed under a
   > specific license.  If you wish to use that code, then you must
   > abide by that license.

   In other words, give up some of the rights to that original code,
   namely the ability to create non-GPL works from parts of it (if I
   go and distribute the combined work). Right?

Again, you do not give up any right to the original code, you are
still the copyright holder of it.  If you use someone elses code, then
you must abide by that liecnse; in this case the GNU GPL.