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> Wider GPL adoption is central to the discussion! Sure. And so the question is, did the GPLv3 improve or degrade adoption of copyleft licensing? To quote fr
by tytso 6y ago
> Wider GPL adoption is central to the discussion!
Sure. And so the question is, did the GPLv3 improve or degrade adoption of copyleft licensing?
To quote from Star Wars, "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
Like it or not, companies fund the vast majority of open source software development, not hobbists, and when the FSF tried to "tighten its grip" by making a license which moved the balance of benefits more towards free software users, and away from the companies which funded the work, things didn't go well for them. And so what the FSF has found is that the the goals of the free software manifesto has been, more and more, slipping through its fingers.
Unless you can make non-free software illegal across all countries, at the end of the day, you need to find a balance where all stakeholders are comfortable with the result so that users, developers, and company freely and happily choose to use free software. This is a negotiation, and if there is more value that can be gained by signing onto the free software ecosystem, then perhaps the balance can be shifted a bit more towards the free software goals. But until you can, given that most open source developers do like food with their meals, a successful open source strategist has to be grounded in the economic and business realities. Just raising your right hand in a fist and shouting, "power to the people" and "freedom" is generally not going to get you very far.
- pseudalopex 6y agoThe FSF reacted to companies like TiVo tightening their grip. I don't think GPL3 really affected adoption of copyleft licensing. Permissive licenses were gaining already.[1] [1] https://redmonk.com/dberkholz/2013/04/02/quantifying-the-shift-toward-permissive-licensing/ https://redmonk.com/dberkholz/2013/04/02/quantifying-the-shi...
- tytso 6y agoI don't think your reference shows that. The GPLv3 was released in 2007. It obviously depends a lot on the language, since each language tends to have its own ecosystem, but the massive shift to permissive licenses really didn't start until 2008-2010, which is after the GPLv3 was promulgated. C didn't tip over to being majority permissive until 2011. So I'd argue that the analysis in the graph tends to support my contention that the GPLv3 hurt rather than helped the copyleft cause.
- mr_toad 6y agoI think it’s irrelevant. Post 2005 is when cloud computing & the web as an app platform began to gain traction, and a lot of open source software from ‘big tech’ is either cloud or web related. The adoption of more permissive licenses is just because the big players favour those licences.
- pseudalopex 6y agoThe ratio went from 0.2 in 2000 to 0.6 in 2006 to 1.1 in 2012. The trend started before it crossed 1.0.
- carapace 6y agoDid you really use the Empire from Star Wars as a metaphor for GPL/FSF? My head is spinning.