Is anyone making money by selling GPL licenses in the real world? I mean, just from the license sales, not from services, etc., attached to the software?
As soon as you sold your first GPL license, your competitive advantage would be reduced to nothing because the person you sold it to could turn around and distribute it for any price, including for free.
Are any businesses actually doing this?
(I guess if there are they wouldn't want us to know, lest we track down one of their customers and get the software from them for free!)
I agree: Gemstar can only offer what the publishers allow them to. The publishing industry is old-fashioned and paranoid, even more so than most businesses. Not to mention, publishers operate on very tight margins. Consequently, they have a very low tolerance for risk. Until you can prove that a new medium works and is profitable, they are going to protect their core business before anything else. (Ie, the markets for printed books.)
The problem here is, it's hard to prove the new medium will be profitable unless they put their profits from printed books at risk.
It's kind of like that book I read once with that funny title... what was it called? Darn it, I had to throw it away years ago. The binding had completely fallen apart.
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Is anyone making money by selling GPL licenses in the real world? I mean, just from the license sales, not from services, etc., attached to the software?
As soon as you sold your first GPL license, your competitive advantage would be reduced to nothing because the person you sold it to could turn around and distribute it for any price, including for free.
Are any businesses actually doing this?
(I guess if there are they wouldn't want us to know, lest we track down one of their customers and get the software from them for free!)
I agree: Gemstar can only offer what the publishers allow them to. The publishing industry is old-fashioned and paranoid, even more so than most businesses. Not to mention, publishers operate on very tight margins. Consequently, they have a very low tolerance for risk. Until you can prove that a new medium works and is profitable, they are going to protect their core business before anything else. (Ie, the markets for printed books.)
... what was it called? Darn it, I had to throw it away years ago. The binding had completely fallen apart.
The problem here is, it's hard to prove the new medium will be profitable unless they put their profits from printed books at risk.
It's kind of like that book I read once with that funny title