OpenCPN for Sale on eBay - Erm . . .

[stevensuf]

MARINE DIGITAL GPS CHARTPLOTTER NAVIGATION SYSTEM & AIS | eBay

[makonnen]

"NOTE:-
This software on this CD is provided free to all users and is fully in the public domain.
You are paying for the CD and "A Reasonable cost for compilation and redistribution"
and NOT the software on the CD itself."

haha, expensive CD. Looks like he bundled all the free charts he could find into this "package" deal.

[deepstar]

I agree ...
However if you go back through his buying history.... several people have posted this is free on the internet.

Can he simply be charging 11 quid to burn it on a CD for you ??

[stevensuf]

hey 11.99 plus postage!

[deepstar]

from ebay ... it would appear many people think this was a bargain.

[atoll]

caveat emptor......

[RainDog]

This bit is precious:

"By leaving FALSE negative feedback or negative feedback where you have NOT read all the listing details or where you have not first consulted with myself, then you agree to pay £250 in damages if that feedback is not removed inside of SEVEN days."

But at the same time he claims to offer tech support. If true (big if I know), tech support at that price is a pretty good deal.

[prof_mariner]

eBay is notorious for this kind of thing. Used to be (and might still be the case) that you could buy (illegal) copies of AutoCAD or Photoshop for $50, although after getting their butts sued eBay started to clean up their act... but it still happens. There's a fellow who sells construction plans for a robot on eBay for $40. I bought a copy only to learn that it was a compilation of files downloaded from various places on the internet, almost all of which was copyrighted by someone else (and not open source). I contacted the fellow, eBay and gave the guy a negative feedback. eBay reviewed the case, removed the negative feedback, and closed the case. A few months later, I found he had stollen some of my work and was selling it as well. If he weren't in Vancouver (I'm in the US) I'd of gotten an attorney to go after the bum.

[cagney]

OpenCPN is definitely not in the "public domain" as this guy states.
GPL, to which he provides a link, is not equal to "public domain".
One of the obligation this guy has, is to supply the full source code to OpenCPN with his CD, or provide a link to Source Forge, or another place where the source code is available. If he isn't doing this, he is breaking the GPL license, and has no right to distribute his CDs.
Providing a link to Source Forge is a bit self-defeating, as the user would find the links to free downloading......

Thomas

[HotRod]

See business information:

Originally Posted by http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/6021marie/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

COPYRIGHT
All the items I sell are copyright to myself. Do not copy my listings and do not copy my products and pass them of as your own. When you buy it states in the listing that if you breach my copyrights you agree to pay £250 compensation for each breach.

[stevensuf]

lol he's got a cheek!

[sdowney717]

if he has done all the work to put it in a convenient package, maps etc,,, and if the tech support is any good then perhaps useful to some people.

puts me off a little with the attitude under his copyright section.

[alan_za]

Hah, I wouldn't trust their money back guarantee. Otherwise it's legal to distribute and charge for distribution of GPL software. Pretty scummy though.

[offline]

If he is breaking the rules a few complaints and a DMCA to Ebay and PayPal would do the trick. Both these companies are pretty compliant when faced by properly constructed complaints.

[jkleins]

While this seller looks pretty cheesy, isn't the fact that anyone can add value to the software and make money off that added value one of the big arguments for open source software?

Isn't that what some of the Linux distributions are doing, packaging up open source software with tools, support, extras that add value to the package and selling it for profit?

While you can argue the value added is not enough to justify the cost arguing that he shouldn't be trying to make a profit off it seems counter to what the open source community touts as one of the benefits of this whole scheme of software creation.

I would also argue that if anyone can actually get this right and package this as a workable product that installs easily and consistently on all computers and has the charts and extras (drivers, etc) in the place they are supposed to be and working that it would be worth spending money for many people and would help the platform considerably. As it is now it takes way too much computer expertise to find everything and install it for it to really reach the bulk of people who could benefit from it. This guy might not be the right person to do it but someone will have to if you want it to become more widely available.

Jim