Messages in this thread | | | From | (Alan Cox) | Subject | Re: Linus is on a powertrip.. | Date | Mon, 5 Oct 1998 17:33:52 +0100 (BST) |
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> For sure I wouldn't like to give up all the things in my daily > toolchain that are under some University-grown copyright, Xerox PARC > copyright and whatnot. You can't even mix Modzilla code and GPL > code. How much worse can it get, given their similar intentions?
Its simply a question of intent. The GPL is intended to create software guarded by a very strict set of protections designed to keep the software "free" to a set of definitions it imposes. As part of that it brooks no compromises. It draws a firm line and labels one side GPL compatible the other side not.
The BSD style licenses are either
Take a copy, enjoy it, hope its useful but don't bug or blame me
or
Take a copy, enjoy it, hope its useful, don't bug or blame me but I wan't crediting in all your documentation and advertising.
The latter bit is the problem with GPL compliance. The GPL license people argue that its an additional restriction and that such advertising clauses in bulk become unworkable. I've been involved on the sidelines of a netbsd derived commercial project killed for that reason. (Equally the folks concerned wouldnt have touched GPL code - the idea of giving something back was kind of alien to them)
No one license is right or wrong. And you can dual license things too. Linux and *BSD do share some things where the authors concerned really don't see a problem with either license being used. For example the new syncppp PPP layer support in Linux 2.1.x is BSD derived but from an author who used an even freer license than the generic BSD ones that matches both. Ted Tso's random driver is dual licensed.
I'd encourage people to look at both licenses when writing stuff and if they simply want people to use their stuff, commercially, binary only, whatever then to use a dual license. If they want to enforce source access etc then the GPL is probably the right choice.
Alan
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