What a bunch of FUD. Let's address the issues one by one.

ActiveState's Perl productivity tools are available individually or as part of a single, value-priced bundle in ASPN Perl. Educational, volume and enterprise licenses are also available.

Say what? You mean I got to pay for this?

No. You don't have to pay for it. You only have to pay for it if you want to purchase it. But noone is forcing you to buy it. Just like a car you don't buy from a dealer - you don't pay for it.

How can they do this legally?

Easy. They have something. It wasn't stolen, nor did they get it by any illegal means. They are ready to engage in a deal. They give a copy to anyone who's willing to give a sum of money in return. A custum practised for thousands of years. Legally.

It is one thing to charge for a Perl course, but these people are putting out software using Perl.

Yes, and? There are people putting out software using C. Or Ada. Of Java.

What's stopping corporations like Microsoft from doing the same thing? (Okay, I guess that wouldn't bode well for their own languages, but still.)

Well, so what? Why shouldn't a company be able to write software using Perl and then sell it. Even if the company is called Microsoft?

I know people pay for Perl programs all the time, but these aren't just programs. They're tools, and tools should be freely available to the community.

Really? What did "the community" do to have the right to freely use programs written by some company? What makes some programs "tools", and why would there be different rights for tools and programs?

What would happen if CPAN became a fee subscription service?

Then a lot of people would stop using CPAN. A lot of people contributing resources to CPAN would probably stop doing that as well. A lot of people would complain - most likely the ones that never invested servers, diskspace or labour into CPAN would complain the loudests. Some silent person would start a new, free, CPAN.

I just don't understand this bickering. If you don't like what ActiveState does, don't buy/use their products. Write your own, and distribute them for free. Actions speak louder than words.

Abigail