Les Mikesell wrote:
Gordon Messmer wrote:
I quit reading that the first time after the second paragraph.
"Perceptive" is not what I thought of the author. The entire article
is a pompous straw-man argument. Find one place in that article where
the author cites any person who actually evinces the attitudes that he
attributes to the group he describes.
That's the point - the people who argue the point don't understand it
this way.
The author was clearly presenting his own views of GPL developers, and
nothing else.
From my perspective, the difference between BSD and GPL authors is
much simpler than he describes. An author who chooses the BSD license
has decided that there will be no cost to other developers who want to
reuse his work in a work of their own. An author who chooses the GPL
license has decided that there is.
Which has the unavoidable side effect of making it impossible to reuse
that code in many situations.
And that's OK. That's the decision that the developers of GPL code have
made. Their code will be available to other developers who share their
values, and not to developers who don't. If you aren't interested in
allowing your users to modify the products that they buy from you, then
you can write your own software an license it however you choose.
GPL developers don't need to be told that the license prevents some
uses. They know that.
The cost of using a GPL licensed work in another work is
reciprocation. We share with those who share with us.
And the side effect of this unneeded restriction
The side effect of the unneeded restriction of $90k dollars for a
Mercedes is that I don't get to drive one. Cry me a river. Cooperation
is the cost of reusing GPL licensed software.
Close your eyes for a moment and picture a big red tag that reads:
$ COOPERATION
That's the GPL.
Asking a price for your work is hardly Communist. That idea has
always been absurd.
The price isn't the point at all, it is the restriction on reuse and
improvement in a large number of ways. And the real cost to society is
the lack of the things the restrictions prevent - at no gain to anyone.
The "restriction on reuse" IS the price. In return for the privilege of
building your products on the work that has been done by the community
of GPL developers, you must also license your derived works under a
compatible license which does not restrict the rights of the users to
whom you sell or distribute your software.
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