OT - OSS licensing help

[Darrin Chandler]

On Sun, Jan 07, 2007 at 03:28:55PM -0700, Mike Schwartz wrote:
> >A short, objective look at the differences between BSD and GPL licenses
> >can be found at
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_and_GPL_licensing
> 
> I recommend to also read
>    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-copyleft.html
> and some of the other stuff at
>    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Sure, but you've left out the advocacy of the other side... ;) I really
don't want to get into it here, but I will discuss the core point made
on why-copyleft.html:

    "Someone who uses your code in a non-free program is trying
     to deny freedom to others, and if you let him do it, you're
     failing to defend their freedom."

The fallacy here is that an individual's freedom is restricted by the
*non-intrusive* actions of another. Bah! You can still choose. The
original software is still free (as in Libre). Freedom is about the
ability to choose and, more importantly, about the *responsibility* of
the *individual* to make informed choices.

The BSD license does not restrict anyone's freedom. That's just hogwash.

If you can't stand the thought of MS using your code in a proprietary
manner, then use GPL instead of BSD.

If you want to make your code available to anyone and everyone for
whatever purpose they want, use BSD instead of GPL.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |