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"The result is that nobody wants to risk tainting their work with GPL code if they're trying to make money." Any particular examples? "If it's GPL many people

by sedachv 16y ago

"The result is that nobody wants to risk tainting their work with GPL code if they're trying to make money." Any particular examples? "If it's GPL many people won't even look at it because who knows if someone who contributed a 2 line patch 10 years ago is going to come banging down your door with lawyers crying about violations. That's not what freedom is about." When has this ever happened? The fact is the AGPLv3 is the most business-friendly Free Software/open source license available: The Affero clause prevents your competitors from taking your software and running an SaaS operation. BSD/MIT doesn't. GPL prevents your competitors from outright stealing your work. BSD/MIT doesn't. Version 3 of the GPL prevents your competitors from using your software on their hardware while preventing you from doing the same thing. BSD/MIT doesn't. Don't forget that there's nothing stopping you from dual-licensing. Dual-licensing with the GPL is a proven business model. Dual-licensing with BSD/MIT doesn't make sense.

rick888 16y ago
"GPL prevents your competitors from outright stealing your work. BSD/MIT doesn't." "Any particular examples?" Me. I know I can't be the only one. Your competitors could just download the source code, figure out what you wrote, and re-work it into their app. As long as it was different enough, there's not much you could do. I'm not sure how this would really help you. "he Affero clause prevents your competitors from taking your software and running an SaaS operation." I thought open source was about freedom. It seems like it's an attempt to prevent people from making a profit and forcing a political movement. Freedom shouldn't have limits. If you are creating your work to force me to adhere to your ideals, it's not really freedom. "GPL prevents your competitors from outright stealing your work. BSD/MIT doesn't." Can code or ideas really be stolen? After all, the original is still there.
- sedachv 16y ago
  "Your competitors could just download the source code, figure out what you wrote, and re-work it into their app. As long as it was different enough, there's not much you could do. I'm not sure how this would really help you." It prevents your competitors from forking a proprietary copy and building on top of it. Looking at the code and re-writing it is a substantial investment.
  - rick888 16y ago
    It depends on the situation and the amount of money and resources your competitor has.

by sedachv 16y ago

rick888 16y ago

"GPL prevents your competitors from outright stealing your work. BSD/MIT doesn't." "Any particular examples?" Me. I know I can't be the only one. Your competitors could just download the source code, figure out what you wrote, and re-work it into their app. As long as it was different enough, there's not much you could do. I'm not sure how this would really help you. "he Affero clause prevents your competitors from taking your software and running an SaaS operation." I thought open source was about freedom. It seems like it's an attempt to prevent people from making a profit and forcing a political movement. Freedom shouldn't have limits. If you are creating your work to force me to adhere to your ideals, it's not really freedom. "GPL prevents your competitors from outright stealing your work. BSD/MIT doesn't." Can code or ideas really be stolen? After all, the original is still there.

sedachv 16y ago
"Your competitors could just download the source code, figure out what you wrote, and re-work it into their app. As long as it was different enough, there's not much you could do. I'm not sure how this would really help you." It prevents your competitors from forking a proprietary copy and building on top of it. Looking at the code and re-writing it is a substantial investment.
- rick888 16y ago
  It depends on the situation and the amount of money and resources your competitor has.