5 ms·

MATLAB code relicensed under BSD license

2 points by skorks 17y ago

apgwoz 17y ago
> This led me to express my frustration to my brother who makes his living writing proprietary software. After a lengthy argument, Yaadi Yaadi Yaaaa, he convinced me that BSD license is much more effective form of open-source license compare to the GPL for my particular case. Since I have no interest in maintaining my code anymore, it would be beneficial to release my code as a BSD license because there is a possibility that someone paid to write codes will maintain it (unlike me). But, the GPL doesn't require that the original maintainer be the only one who can maintain it, so I don't see how this is convincing. The GPL just says that if you modify it and distribute it, you have to distribute your changes as well. So, perhaps there's fragmentation, or whatever, but people are at least obligated to contribute. The BSD license allows a company to take advantage of all your hard work for it's own gain without requiring it be rereleased... Fine I suppose, but I want contributions.
- dantheman 17y ago
  If you want to use that code as part of a larger project then the GPL will prevent you from using it at your job, whereas BSD will allow you to leverage the code and you can still release your updates to community. BSD is a truly free license, you give people to freedom to do whatever they like.
  - apgwoz 17y ago
    Right. It is. But, what I'm saying is that BSD doesn't make it any more easy for others to maintain than the GPL does, like the article suggests.
    - dantheman 17y ago
      It does, because as I said I can use it in a commercial product. If I find a bug, or decide to add a feature or extend it I can release a patch back. If it was GPL'd I wouldn't have been able to use it and thus the patches and features would not have been released back.
fragmede 17y ago
Misleading title; The code for Mathworks product, MATLAB is not being relicensed. A previously GPL'd ".m" file is being forced to relicense as BSD in order to stay listed on MathWorks' website.

2 points by skorks 17y ago

> This led me to express my frustration to my brother who makes his living writing proprietary software. After a lengthy argument, Yaadi Yaadi Yaaaa, he convinced me that BSD license is much more effective form of open-source license compare to the GPL for my particular case. Since I have no interest in maintaining my code anymore, it would be beneficial to release my code as a BSD license because there is a possibility that someone paid to write codes will maintain it (unlike me). But, the GPL doesn't require that the original maintainer be the only one who can maintain it, so I don't see how this is convincing. The GPL just says that if you modify it and distribute it, you have to distribute your changes as well. So, perhaps there's fragmentation, or whatever, but people are at least obligated to contribute. The BSD license allows a company to take advantage of all your hard work for it's own gain without requiring it be rereleased... Fine I suppose, but I want contributions.

dantheman 17y ago
If you want to use that code as part of a larger project then the GPL will prevent you from using it at your job, whereas BSD will allow you to leverage the code and you can still release your updates to community. BSD is a truly free license, you give people to freedom to do whatever they like.
- apgwoz 17y ago
  Right. It is. But, what I'm saying is that BSD doesn't make it any more easy for others to maintain than the GPL does, like the article suggests.
  - dantheman 17y ago
    It does, because as I said I can use it in a commercial product. If I find a bug, or decide to add a feature or extend it I can release a patch back. If it was GPL'd I wouldn't have been able to use it and thus the patches and features would not have been released back.

fragmede 17y ago

Misleading title; The code for Mathworks product, MATLAB is not being relicensed. A previously GPL'd ".m" file is being forced to relicense as BSD in order to stay listed on MathWorks' website.