My friend alerted me to a seller that has been selling Audacity on the popular auction site eBay. For $2.99, you can purchase the wonderful music editor which will be emailed right to your door instantly.
The Audacity license explicitly allows this, but you’d really have to be an idiot to purchase from this seller.
In my opinion, it is unfortunate that someone would go to such lengths to take advantage of innocent buyers.
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He is also selling the Clamwin antivirus and copied the website description, just deleting some words.
His ebay item:
ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge.
The official site:
ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge.
A few months back one of the members of the Hamlib project noted that a certain ham radio control program was being sold through the site. It turned out that at least two sellers were selling this GPL’ed program. Amazingly, at least was getting enthusiastic feedback. I wonder if they would have been as happy with it if they had just downloaded it.
I wrote a comment to this guy and told him he should be ashamed of himself for taking advantage of people for this.
Actually, is the Audacity one legal, under trademark law?
“You may not advertise yourself or your business as an authorized distributor of Audacity. The name Audacity is a registered trademark of Dominic Mazzoni”
Also, will he provide a copy of the GPL, the sources, etc., to the buyer as per the GPL?
Its funny how this guy.. in the long run will be helping promote OSS more than he hurts it.
When Lots of people hear about someone doing a dirty trick like this, it will promote the ideas of OSS. If he only gets few buyers then it might be a bigger plus than minus?
Still – I think he should refund them.
In general, I don’t think there is a real problem with this. GPL permits selling the software. If you don’t want that, you should not use GPL right? It’s the same as selling cans of soda on the street during events. Sure, you can get them cheaper from the supermarket (and that’s where that seller would get them probably), but people buy it anyway.
If people were to get some additional info on the software they are buying by just googling it, they would immediatly find out that they can get it for free as well, right?
In the end, aren’t the big linux distributions doing the same? Selling packages of free software? I never heard anyone complain about that.
I didn’t say it was illegal, simply that it was dubious at best.
Unfortunately, that’s not the first time somebody rips off both developers and users. I think the trademark issue is the best way to go, as pointed out by David B. The guys over at NeoOffice had problems like that, with people selling CD’s, and their trademark policy page http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/NeoOffice_CD_Distribution_&_Trademark_Usage is now very clear:
“Any usage of the NeoOffice® trademark for software that is not directly affiliated with the trademark holder is hereby forbidden.”
“usage of the NeoOffice® trademark is hereby granted for any mirroring of only the NeoOffice® binaries that are currently available for download from Planamesa Software”
“The moment that an exchange of money is involved, usage of the NeoOffice® trademark is hereby prohibited unless 100% of gross margins on such sales are donated back to NeoOffice.org and Planamesa Software.”
I think that should provide a strong case, shouldn’t it?
I can’t believe the audacity of this guy!
…sorry; that was just too hard to resist.
It is GOOD that this happens.
1. It shows that Open Source Software has value.
2. It helps those who cannot use google / yahoo find good software.
(On a flip side, It is rather sad that the buyer doesn’t even attempt to do the homework before buying. If there is wrong-doing on anyone’s part, it’s on the side of buyer. Do we even want idiots using and reviewing / providing feedback on complex apps like Audacity?)
There is nothing wrong with what he is doing.
1) Many linux distros are doing exactly the same. I remember way back when people where concerned about this. In the end they have been essential for linux adoption.
Who are you to say he is doing something unethical? Do you condemn capitalism? you very well may, but in the country he lives in it is perfectly ok to resell for a profit. Assuming you live in the US or any capitalist country, you are the one that is out of sync with everyone’s values.
2) He is actually promoting Audacity by exposing it to more people that may not think it would work for them. If you look at his ebay page, it is actually good promotional material.
3) I doubt he is selling a lot of copies. I think the whole issue is moot
4) He has written permission from the audacity authors that allows him to do this.
5) He is not taking advantage of anybody, people can google for it and get it for free if they wanted it. He is not deceiving anyone.
6) This is what EVERY RESELLER DOES: buy low (in this case free), sell high. This is just basic economics at work.
7) If someone is too lazy to google for the program, and does not mind paying for it, then let them.
9) The more successful he is, the more he is going to promote this and other free software.
Please consider doing this yourselves, not only with free software, but with free content such as stuff from project Gutenberg.
P.S. If you are wondering, I am not the guy selling the stuff on Ebay, I just think he is actually doing a good thing.
I agree there is no problem with this. In fact, its how I was introduced to open source software. Three years ago I bought a distro of Open Office. Later, finding out I could have downloaded it for free was I ad? Nope. I paid a small fee for an education in what open source software could provide. Now most of what I use is open source. A whole lot of newbies have no idea there is this huge world of free software available. This guy is promoting OSS. I do think he should donate back at least some of the proceeds, though.