Thread: Someone finally put it into print...
GPL evil, BSD so-so...
http://www.daemonnews.org/199905/gpl.html
Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy
Systems Administrator @ hub.org
primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> writes: > GPL evil, BSD so-so... > http://www.daemonnews.org/199905/gpl.html Talk about a one-sided, inflammatory presentation ... sheesh. I happen to like BSD better myself, but calling GPL "Communistic" is a few steps beyond reasonable discourse. The real meat of the issue is this: if you give your free software away under a BSD-style license, someone else can use it as a component of a non-free, non-open-source product. If you give your software away under a GPL-style license, it can only be used as a component of more free, open-source software. Either of these might be a reasonable goal depending on your purposes. I read Michael Maxwell's attack as saying "it's not good enough for you to give code away for free, I demand that you allow me to make money off your work". regards, tom lane
On Thu, 13 May 1999, Tom Lane wrote: > The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> writes: > > GPL evil, BSD so-so... > > http://www.daemonnews.org/199905/gpl.html > > Talk about a one-sided, inflammatory presentation ... sheesh. > > I happen to like BSD better myself, but calling GPL "Communistic" > is a few steps beyond reasonable discourse. > > The real meat of the issue is this: if you give your free software away > under a BSD-style license, someone else can use it as a component of a > non-free, non-open-source product. If you give your software away under > a GPL-style license, it can only be used as a component of more free, > open-source software. Either of these might be a reasonable goal > depending on your purposes. I read Michael Maxwell's attack as saying > "it's not good enough for you to give code away for free, I demand that > you allow me to make money off your work". My personal opinion on the two licensing schemes is that they both take the 'far extreme' approach...neither of them is perfect and if one could someone come up with a "middle ground" license, that would be great. Each of them has their good points, but I still think the BSD one is the "lesser of two evils"... BSD gives too much freedom...GPL doesn't give enough... Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy Systems Administrator @ hub.org primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
On Thu, 13 May 1999, The Hermit Hacker wrote: > > GPL evil, BSD so-so... > > http://www.daemonnews.org/199905/gpl.html I refuse to argue about this one, because it inevitably ends up being a big war with no-one clearly right. Please don't put flame-bait up like this! Also, this guy needs to do more research. There are specifically stated exceptions for tools like flex/bison/yacc/gcc/etc. Taral
Distributed Copyright? (Was: Re: [HACKERS] Someone finally put it into print...)
From
Clark Evans
Date:
The Hermit Hacker wrote: > My personal opinion on the two licensing schemes is that they both take > the 'far extreme' approach...neither of them is perfect and if one could > someone come up with a "middle ground" license, that would be great. I'd love your feedback on a license / software ownership model that I've been working on. It's very rough schetch... http://distributedcopyright.org Thanks! Clark P.S. There is a discussion list for this idea on the web site, for those interested in talking about it more.