Re: R: Consortium Caml

[Daniel de Rauglaudre <daniel.de_rauglaudre@inria.fr>]

Hi,

On Fri, Feb 09, 2001 at 05:22:25PM +0100, Markus Mottl wrote:

> This is a legal question rather than an economic one. Still, I fear that
> it will be difficult to gain many (= enough) members unless they see a
> certain benefit from it without having too much risk.

I don't agree with that. The idea of the Consortium is not for companies
to get their money back: they pay for the warranty that OCaml continues.
If you decide that OCaml has to be used in your company, you may take
some advantages on paying. It is sponsoring, nothing else.

> But with a consortium with membership fees there are naughty
> game-theoretic aspects: if you don't donate and OCaml fails, you won't
> care: you haven't lost anything.

Yes you loose: you loose all the applications that you wrote in OCaml!
Of course, if your idea is not to use OCaml, may I recommend you this:
don't pay.

The Consortium is for companies: for people who make strategic decisions
like using the language. It is not for individuals: as an individual, of
course, you don't care that OCaml stops. But if you are the boss of a big
company and decide to use it, it can be terrible if it no more supported.

If you are a company, the most you decide using OCaml, the most you
have interest to finance the Consortium.

-- 
Daniel de RAUGLAUDRE
daniel.de_rauglaudre@inria.fr
http://cristal.inria.fr/~ddr/