Charging ($20) for GPL source?

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Matthew,

> Shane M. Coughlan wrote:
> > As for charging, if the actual cost to the company of preparing and
> > shipping the source code on CD ROM is $20 then there is nothing
> > wrong in charging $20
> 
> I actually think that's highly unlikely.  The cost of a CD-R is $.16 .
> Media rate is $1.59.  A CD-R drive with shipping is $13.  Minimum wage
> is $5.15/h.  That gives us $19.90.  They're still ripping people off
> if they have to get CD-Rs in packs of 50, it takes an hour for them to
> burn a CD, and their CD-R drive breaks after every burn.

Why does the wage have to be minimum?  A small company might have a
senior person doing the work at a higher wage.  Or they may not have any
minimum wage employees in the appropriate department.  And in the UK
minimum wage can be about USD10.50 at the moment.

> Nevertheless, I don't think this price is actionable.  I hope someone
> does go after one of those $100/source CD vendors, but it probably
> won't happen.

I hope so too.  Alan Sugar's Amstrad in the UK shipped a CD for GBP25
(USD49) for their E3 videophone (only after protest) but it doesn't
contain the correct Linux source and they refuse to improve it, saying
it isn't a priority.  I'm sure if they'd licensed a proprietary product
and the vendor complained they weren't paying their fee, Amstrad would
fix it pronto.  Unfortunately, it was hard to find a UK Linux kernel
copyright holder with the time to chase it.

Cheers,


Ralph.