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With few exceptions, I generally view the purpose of permissive licenses as "encouraging derivative software with EULAs and other restrictions", and the purpose
by Seirdy 5y ago
With few exceptions, I generally view the purpose of permissive licenses as "encouraging derivative software with EULAs and other restrictions", and the purpose of copyleft licenses as only allowing derivatives that don't restrict such freedoms.
Copyleft software therefore guarantees more freedom than permissively licensed software.
- reshlo 5y agoThe choice often isn’t between having a given derivative work be permissively licensed or copyleft. It’s between having the derivative work exist at all or not. As a software author, choosing a license that requires people to be subject to more conditions to use my software is giving them less freedom, not more. If someone makes a derivative work with a restrictive license, that doesn’t make my software any less free.
- fn-mote 5y ago> that doesn’t make my software any less free You might say it makes your software less yours, though. A restrictive license protects your interest in the code. After all, that's why companies are releasing their code under restrictive licenses. 100% agree there's a tradeoff of this with popularity, and it will never matter for almost everyone. But the people for whom it does matter get upset sometimes --- licensing is a choice that needs to be made with eyes wide open.