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> then picking a license that makes lawyers run might be the way to go In most of corporate America, that would be GPL or AGPL licenses, from direct experience

> then picking a license that makes lawyers run might be the way to go In most of corporate America, that would be GPL or AGPL licenses, from direct experience working with outside council at multiple employers defining licensing policies.

catalogia 7y ago
Yes, AGPLv3 is a crowd favorite for flipping corporate users the bird.
tyingq 7y ago
AGPL maybe, but GPL doesn't seem to be a barrier. Linux, Emacs, MySQL, gcc, git, OpenJDK, etc...are everywhere in corporate America. Perhaps for libraries you link to that aren't LGPL.
- influx 7y ago
  GPL 2 usually wasn’t a problem, but version 3 is significantly limiting open source use in the industry.
  - cycloptic 7y ago
    That is by design. Companies that intend to ship locked-down devices or sue their own users for patent infringement are probably not going to be good open source actors anyway.
  - rwmj 7y ago
    Red Hat ships tons of GPLv3 code to industries and organizations across the world and was just acquired for north of $30 billion.
- still_grokking 7y ago
  One of the biggest Linux users (Google) is working on a replacement… Emacs? Really? It's quite common to replace MySQL/MariaDB with PostgreSQL these days. GCC? "Everybody" (BIG-CORP) is basing work on LLVM. OpenJDK? People can't stand it to this day that Oracle was so "evil" releasing OpenJDK under GPL. (And this is not even a "pure" GPL. It needs a exception). Git may be an exception form the "Don't touch GPL code!" "rule". But again BIG-CORP is often not using Git internally… Do you have more examples of GPL stuff being successful in BIG-CORP settings? GPL (especially v3) is used actively to prevent businesses to use code! This works because in commercial settings GPL is mostly everywhere verboten. Often you can have the exact same code under GPL, or a commercial license, and businesses are buying the commercial license only to avoid having some GPL code around. So I see GPL being a "barrier". One could even assume an anti-GPL campaign by BIG-CORP is going on for the last few years.
  - tyingq 7y ago
    I'm not even sure where to start here. I'll just reiterate that every tool I mentioned is prevalent across corporate America. Industries like Oil and Gas, Healthcare, Banks, Telecoms, Airlines, Shipping Companies, Food Products, etc.
dtech 7y ago
GPL is only a problem as a dependency for your software, GPL software is widely used within corporations.
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  Yes, it is widely used, but to say corporate lawyers don’t take issue with the GPL is definitely inaccurate in my experience.

catalogia 7y ago

Yes, AGPLv3 is a crowd favorite for flipping corporate users the bird.

tyingq 7y ago

AGPL maybe, but GPL doesn't seem to be a barrier. Linux, Emacs, MySQL, gcc, git, OpenJDK, etc...are everywhere in corporate America. Perhaps for libraries you link to that aren't LGPL.

influx 7y ago
GPL 2 usually wasn’t a problem, but version 3 is significantly limiting open source use in the industry.
- cycloptic 7y ago
  That is by design. Companies that intend to ship locked-down devices or sue their own users for patent infringement are probably not going to be good open source actors anyway.
- rwmj 7y ago
  Red Hat ships tons of GPLv3 code to industries and organizations across the world and was just acquired for north of $30 billion.
still_grokking 7y ago
One of the biggest Linux users (Google) is working on a replacement… Emacs? Really? It's quite common to replace MySQL/MariaDB with PostgreSQL these days. GCC? "Everybody" (BIG-CORP) is basing work on LLVM. OpenJDK? People can't stand it to this day that Oracle was so "evil" releasing OpenJDK under GPL. (And this is not even a "pure" GPL. It needs a exception). Git may be an exception form the "Don't touch GPL code!" "rule". But again BIG-CORP is often not using Git internally… Do you have more examples of GPL stuff being successful in BIG-CORP settings? GPL (especially v3) is used actively to prevent businesses to use code! This works because in commercial settings GPL is mostly everywhere verboten. Often you can have the exact same code under GPL, or a commercial license, and businesses are buying the commercial license only to avoid having some GPL code around. So I see GPL being a "barrier". One could even assume an anti-GPL campaign by BIG-CORP is going on for the last few years.
- tyingq 7y ago
  I'm not even sure where to start here. I'll just reiterate that every tool I mentioned is prevalent across corporate America. Industries like Oil and Gas, Healthcare, Banks, Telecoms, Airlines, Shipping Companies, Food Products, etc.

dtech 7y ago

GPL is only a problem as a dependency for your software, GPL software is widely used within corporations.

jsjohnst 7y ago
Yes, it is widely used, but to say corporate lawyers don’t take issue with the GPL is definitely inaccurate in my experience.