Quote:
Originally Posted by @ruantec
ok so if i get you right you´re saying my point of view is wrong right??? ok i accept it but... that means that you´re saying there are no many companies/people doing it right?????
if that´s the case i would like to visit your country(USA) because it seems like is a great place were no-piracy/stealing exists wow!!! a perfect place!..... just in case not talking bad about your country.. am just trying to understand your point of view for the first time and not keep missunderstanding your posts as we did in previous one...
|
Software piracy is a very different thing from license violations of GPLed code. We could argue about which has a greater impact or which is more "wrong", but that's far removed from the issue at hand.
If a company pirates photoshop then it'll be difficult for them to be traced, short of inspections/audits. On the other hand, if a company ships a proprietary product that utilizes GPLed code then it's not impossible to find conclusive evidence that demonstrates this. Whether or not this will hold up in court I don't really know, but it's much more traceable.
It would also be much more costly. If a company was found to have pirated software then their damages would probably be to pay the amount the software cost. On the other hand, if they were found to have been using GPLed source code, they would not only have to release all of their source code but they'd probably have to pay royalties of money earned thus far to the existing copyright holders. Unless the company is very small and was very unsuccessful then it would probably be much more damaging to get caught having incorporated GPLed code.
When I say that I don't think it's very widespread in commercial code it's not because I think that companies are honorable but because I think they don't want to take this risk. Usually code is reviewed and a decently sized company wouldn't let its programmers do things like this. Not that they'd let them pirate software either, but there's a better chance that no one would notice.
Now, if you ask me how many companies are using GPLed source code in proprietary products, the answer isn't so much that I think no one or few are doing it, the answer is more that I don't know how many are doing it. Without further evidence that's the best I can say. It's more fair to say nothing than to assume culpability. I do know there were some cases where companies were caught, but they came off more as thorough scams than legitimate endeavors, like CherryOS. And they didn't get away with it.
"On topic", if somehow the original poster still feels like he hasn't been answered (although we have, IMO) then the best thing I can say is don't modify someone's code to another language then think you can escape their language. It's not allowed.