[thelist] Legal question, GNU/PGL related

[noah]

At 07:02 PM 15/01/2002, Kevin D. White wrote:
>The client is paying for your services not the software so this really is
>not a software license issue.  You may not charge for software covered under
>the GPL, otherwise it wouldn't be "free software."

I think you can actually charge - the "free" means free as in speech, 
rather than free as in beer (I think that's a Slahdotism). See here:
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMoney>

>There is nothing
>barring you from charging for delivery, customization (with sources of
>course), and so on.

That's probably the most important issue w/r to GPL software - if you make 
any modifications to the code, you have to make the new code available.

Of course, all of this is somewhat speculative, since I don't think the GPL 
has yet been challenged or enforced by any court.

Cheers,
Noah