Submission + - Artifex misstates the effects of the GPL 1
JanMark writes: Ghostscript was originally written by L Peter Deutsch and released under the GPL. Later, Aladdin Enterprises distributed a Ghostscript fork under a proprietary license. Currently Artifex Software exercises a commercial and a Copyleft license on Ghostscript. A friend of mine asked me if he could distribute Ghostscript as post processor for the output of a proprietary program. I told him, "Under GPL? No problem!" But he pointed me to the Artifex Licensing Information page. They seemed to have a very narrow view on what the GPL allows. So I wrote rms and he agrees with me. Artifex's description of the effects of the GPL is incorrect. IMHO, it even borders on fraud. It also has a very damaging side effect. Lots of people already think that any usage of GPLed software means they have to give away their own software for free (beer and speech). Actually it is the most common misconception I encounter. It makes me wonder maybe the misconception comes from within?
