On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 12:19:38PM +0100, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:
> Microchip has a new C compiler for these chips. It was decribed as
> 'GNU-based', yet uChip plans to sell the compiler for some $800. IMHO
> that is a contradiction, if the GNU license realy applies they will sell
> only one! Funny: the documentation for the compiler had the GNU open
> documentation license in an appendix, but the normal Microchip copyright
> at the first page, and no note that the GDL applies.

It will be interesting to hear the clarification of this.

If they copied code from something that is licensed under the GPL, then
their product can't be under a lesser license (because that violates the
terms of the GPL) and so they couldn't "sell" a license to use the
product, because the GPL grants a license to anybody who meets the
terms.

$800 is far too much to be a reasonable fee for copying the media.

They can certainly sell you a year's support service for the product for
that $800 though.  That's much more appropriate, if the license is GPL.

Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

--
James Cameron    mailto:quozl@us.netrek.org     http://quozl.netrek.org/

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