Licensing Issues

[Peter Olsen]

You’ve more explicitly made my point.  Consider the license you want to use before you start to write.  If you’re unsure, avoid the GPL.  I want my code to be used. Avoiding the GPL allows more people to do that.  

Here’s an example of GPL complications, I used to write a lot of code for the Government, at taxpayer expense.  My employers were more than willing to provide source, but only to recipients cleared for it.  If improvements were made to tools, often they could not be released to the general public.  For example, suppose I wrote Emacs lisp code to perform something only usable in a classified environment.  Using GPL code posed interesting problems.  

> On Jul 3, 2015, at 04:51 , Pascal J. Bourguignon <pjb at informatimago.com> wrote:
> 
> Peter Olsen <pcolsen at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> This discussions such as this are good reasons to avoid using GPL code
>> where ever possible.  
> 
> Let's not repeat the discussion, but for the by-standers, I'll mention
> that 
> 
> - it would also be a good reason why to use GPL always and everywhere
>  (so those problems do not occur anymore).
> 
> - in the wake of WebAssembly, one should even consider AGPL3, less you
>  see web sites using your GPL code without providing the sources, but
>  sending the users a compiled form.  
> 
>  One of the main reason why web programming has spread so much, is
>  because web pages and programs were sent everywhere in source form.
>  Once you receive in your HTML the link to some binary blob, users and
>  newbie web programmers won't have the same barrier to entrance…
> 
> - last time I checked, Montsanto and the other corporations still
>  required monetary payment for the tomatoes I need to be programming.
>  Therefore I see no reason to let corporations use my code without at
>  least, providing the source code of their programs using it that they
>  distribute.  They're still free to accept or not this "payment", as
>  I'm free to accept or not to pay for their tomatoes.  BSD and MIT are
>  universities, with programmers paid by the public; their software are
>  already paid by the public.  Depending on the situation in which you
>  are (public servant with your living already assured by the people, or
>  private guys who has to pay for everything), you should choose wisely
>  your licenses.  As soon as a universal revenue of some kind is
>  established, I will revise my choice of license.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> __Pascal Bourguignon__                 http://www.informatimago.com/
> “The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
> dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to
> keep the man from touching the equipment.” -- Carl Bass CEO Autodesk
> 
>