[2][opinion][better source needed] Another way is to use the copylefted work as a commodity tool or component to provide a service or product.
With software that is copyleft, the business will then have the disadvantage that selling licences is rarely possible (because anyone can distribute copies at no financial cost), but the business will have the advantage that their competitors can't incorporate that improved version into a product and then distribute it without that competitor also making the modifications they authored available to the original distributor, thereby avoiding a type of free-rider problem.
Some argue the investments in research and development for business models utilising copylefted works are weak[citation needed], by not having exclusivity over the profits gained from the result.
Economically, copyleft is considered the only mechanism able to compete with monopolistic firms that rely on the financial exploitation of copyright, trademark and patent laws.
They also had success in convincing government bodies to switch[citation needed] to Mandriva, a Linux distribution they developed and maintained.
UserLinux, a project set up by Bruce Perens, supported the emergence of such small-scale business based on free software, that is, copylefted or otherwise freely licensed computer programs.
Providing commercial services for an artistic copylefted work is more difficult to do in practice than in software development[citation needed].
The music industry objected to peer-to-peer file exchanging software, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) gave some suggestions to resolve the issue.