4 ms·

The license, I'm not a fan of violating licenses. I get that most people do it anyways, I'd just prefer not to.

by bifrost 6y ago

rascul 6y ago
What about the license prevents you?
- bifrost 6y ago
  The fact that its not free, like the BSD/MIT/etc licenses.
  - rascul 6y ago
    I'm trying to understand your argument but you're not giving much clarification. I don't understand why you can't use GPL software freely.
    - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
      The general gripe of such people is that copyleft prevents you from distributing custom changes to other entities without sharing the source. That one catch is "less free" than the utopia where anyone can take code without a stick making them contribute back to foster the ecosystem.
yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
What would you possibly do as a user that would run afoul of a a GPL license? It doesn't do anything unless you redistribute it
- bifrost 6y ago
  Its pretty obvious what I'd be doing. GPL violations happen all the time but they rarely get caught.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
    > Its pretty obvious what I'd be doing. It's really not. The GPL requirements, AFAIK, only come up if you're distributing binaries and refusing to give source to people when asked (or, in v3, if you stop people from building and running that code). The only situations I can think of where that would even come up are situations where you're no longer acting as a user. So humor me; what exactly could a user do to violate the GPL?
    - bifrost 6y ago
      I think you might want to read the GPL to get a deeper understanding of how it applies. Its fairly easy to violate the GPL as a user.
      - mhh__ 6y ago
        I'm not sure it is for the vast majority of users? How do you violate the GPL by using git?
      - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
        We are now 3 comments deep into you claiming that users can violate the GPL, and repeatedly not explaining how they can do so when asked. Is it too much to ask for a specific example of how a user can violate the license on a piece of software using the GPL, rather than repeating the same insinuation without any substantiation?
    - pieno 6y ago
      Not the GP and I agree that as a mere user you’d not easily violate the GPL. But even as a developer it’s less free than you seem to imply: the GPL actually requires more than just distributing the source: you must also license the modified or additional code under the GPL. If you create “derivative works” of GPL licensed software, you are not free to distribute your modified or new code under a more permissive (non-copyleft) license such as the BSD license. Note that you can find whole textbooks on what constitutes “derivative works”, but in any case it’s much broader than just forking a library. Basically any software that integrates the GPL licensed code (other than integration by way of loosely couples interfaces communicating via other means) is a derivative work. For example, when your enterprisy application bundles and uses a GPL library to generate PDF’s of some of its data, the enterprisy application as a whole typically becomes a derivative work, which means (11) you must distribute the source of the full application together with any binary distribution of the app and (2) that source must be licensed under GPL.

The license, I'm not a fan of violating licenses. I get that most people do it anyways, I'd just prefer not to.

rascul 6y ago

What about the license prevents you?

bifrost 6y ago
The fact that its not free, like the BSD/MIT/etc licenses.
- rascul 6y ago
  I'm trying to understand your argument but you're not giving much clarification. I don't understand why you can't use GPL software freely.
  - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
    The general gripe of such people is that copyleft prevents you from distributing custom changes to other entities without sharing the source. That one catch is "less free" than the utopia where anyone can take code without a stick making them contribute back to foster the ecosystem.

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago

What would you possibly do as a user that would run afoul of a a GPL license? It doesn't do anything unless you redistribute it

bifrost 6y ago
Its pretty obvious what I'd be doing. GPL violations happen all the time but they rarely get caught.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  > Its pretty obvious what I'd be doing. It's really not. The GPL requirements, AFAIK, only come up if you're distributing binaries and refusing to give source to people when asked (or, in v3, if you stop people from building and running that code). The only situations I can think of where that would even come up are situations where you're no longer acting as a user. So humor me; what exactly could a user do to violate the GPL?
  - bifrost 6y ago
    I think you might want to read the GPL to get a deeper understanding of how it applies. Its fairly easy to violate the GPL as a user.
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      I'm not sure it is for the vast majority of users? How do you violate the GPL by using git?
    - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
      We are now 3 comments deep into you claiming that users can violate the GPL, and repeatedly not explaining how they can do so when asked. Is it too much to ask for a specific example of how a user can violate the license on a piece of software using the GPL, rather than repeating the same insinuation without any substantiation?
  - pieno 6y ago
    Not the GP and I agree that as a mere user you’d not easily violate the GPL. But even as a developer it’s less free than you seem to imply: the GPL actually requires more than just distributing the source: you must also license the modified or additional code under the GPL. If you create “derivative works” of GPL licensed software, you are not free to distribute your modified or new code under a more permissive (non-copyleft) license such as the BSD license. Note that you can find whole textbooks on what constitutes “derivative works”, but in any case it’s much broader than just forking a library. Basically any software that integrates the GPL licensed code (other than integration by way of loosely couples interfaces communicating via other means) is a derivative work. For example, when your enterprisy application bundles and uses a GPL library to generate PDF’s of some of its data, the enterprisy application as a whole typically becomes a derivative work, which means (11) you must distribute the source of the full application together with any binary distribution of the app and (2) that source must be licensed under GPL.