Lewis Black has this great bit he does, where he describes being out and about one day, and hearing a stray phrase from a nearby woman grab his attention like flypaper grabs a mosquito:
If it weren’t for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college.
Well, today, while doing a little research on network monitoring packages to see what's new out there, I ended up taking a peek at how Big Brother is doing these days. On their page, in the License section, lay another equally enigmatic phrase:
Big Brother is distributed under our Better than Free license. Clause 2 from that license determines whether you need to buy a Commercial license.
I'm sorry - what? It's better than free, but I have to worry about buying (as in, non-free) a license in some conditions. I really have no idea of how to reconcile those two sentences together without application of drugs. I recommend you don't try too hard, either, or you risk at minimum a migraine.
Let's just look at the first half. Better than free? So unless they're paying me to use their software, then not only is it free, but they throw in something else, too, like cake. Now, it is true that you can download and start using the software at no charge, but there are some strings attached. To be fair, let's compare their version of free to that famous poster child of free software, the GPL.
| Better than Free | GPL | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 30 days, and then you have to buy a commercial license. | Perpetual, until the terms are violated. |
| Source Code | Only if they feel like giving it to you. | If you obtain a copy of a GPL binary, you are entitled to the source code that generated it. |
| Derivative Works | Standard commercial no modifications, no reverse engineering, "hands off!" clause. | Ensuring that each user has full rights to create, modify, and distribute derivative works is the entire purpose of the GPL. |
| Termination | License is terminated on breach, or also with a 30 day notification on the web site. | Only on breach of terms. |
Uh-huh. So you've only got 30 days, you're not guaranteed the right to delve into and modify the software, you can't give it or any changes you make to anyone else, and they can change the terms on you whenever they like. And no cake.
If that's "better", then I'll stick with plain old GPL and boring old "just free".
