So I am scanning news.google.com for Perl stories because I heard merlyn does this frequently and I came across a story about ActiveState's new Perl product line. I'm thinking "Great more Perl stuff to enjoy". Then I saw this line:

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? How can they do this legally? It is one thing to charge for a Perl course, but these people are putting out software using Perl. 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.)

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. What would happen if CPAN became a fee subscription service?

In reply to (OT) ActiveState by Anonymous Monk

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