Different level of liability. When GPL missteps are discovered in software, the offender can usually just re-release the software without the GPL code and move

Different level of liability. When GPL missteps are discovered in software, the offender can usually just re-release the software without the GPL code and move on. In hardware…it's soldered into a bunch of devices all over the place. Consider Intel taking a $475 million hit for the FDIV bug (requiring a hardware replacement) vs the invisible bugfixing through microcode (i.e., software) they do now.