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by mcpackieh
1073 days ago
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RMS has always been clear that selling Free Software and only distributing the source to people who bought the software from you is fine. But I don't think he's ever suggested that somebody selling Free Software in this way might threaten to cut their customers off from future updates if they ever exercise their right to redistribute the software they bought. Redistribution is a key part of "[some list of freedoms]", and this "you can redistribute this version but if you do you'll be cut off from future versions" scheme is not something I've ever heard him endorse. |
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He likely wouldn't endorse it, but I don't think he would condemn it as non-Free. After all, if a company wants to "fire" a customer, they're allowed to do so, for whatever stupid reason they like.
As far as the customer's freedoms are concerned, as long as they're aware that by redistributing they're pulling the ripcord on the relationship and starting (or switching to) an unfriendly fork, well, that's just an oddly formal version of the process.