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If this had been GPL or AGPL, even dual licensed, it wouldn't have been included in a BSD-style licensed product like Chromium. And Google or any entity behind
by btown 10y ago
If this had been GPL or AGPL, even dual licensed, it wouldn't have been included in a BSD-style licensed product like Chromium. And Google or any entity behind such a product probably would have written something similar themselves. There is a nonzero chance that they would have acquihired Libevthtp Inc. to get his expertise and IP and allow them to relicense as whatever they wanted... but that's a small chance indeed. So there were really no paying customers, and the market clearing price for a copyleft libevhtp is effectively $0.
Like a startup, writing open source requires that you find customers (or employers) who will pay, or you do it as a passion project. In an ideal world people would have basic income and could write open source all day long, but that's not our world.
- falcolas 10y ago> So there were really no paying customers Well, there were no customers who would pay the original author. Chromium still required developers to incorporate and maintain the library. Money was spent on the library, it's just that none of that money was given back to the original developer. > or you do it as a passion project Doing a "passion project" doesn't mean that you need to give everything away. If there's the chance my passion project could make money, why deprive myself of that chance before I even begin? Lots of passion projects licensed GPL which make money; and lots of passion projects licensed BSD which don't have a single user.