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> the GPL and like licenses are the most permissive licenses This is a deliberately confusing statement. It's fine to prefer the GPL over MIT/BSD-style license
by aluminum96 5y ago
> the GPL and like licenses are the most permissive licenses
This is a deliberately confusing statement. It's fine to prefer the GPL over MIT/BSD-style licenses, but the term "permissive" is well-understood in reference to non-copyleft licenses. Misapplying that term just muddles the issue unnecessarily.
See also: [the wikipedia page on permissive licenses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_software_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_software_license).
- da_chicken 5y agoYeah, it's already confusing enough with "free" and "open" having too many competing meanings.
- fsckboy 5y agoyou are creating more confusion by selectively quoting me out of context. You left out "from the perspective of the eventual users" You are saying that from the perspective of developers, taking open source software and not permitting users to see the source is... permissive. It's like the right to put people in jail is extra freedom, because you get the freedom to do that! I can't believe that's not in the bill of rights! I find that to be confusing. I did not create the confusion that surrounds licensing, I'm trying to clarify it.
- Brian_K_White 5y agoIt's the most permissive, in that it yields the most permission. The permission denied to your company to take without giving, is outweighed by the permission granted to everyone else. Everyone who ever complains about the gpl is just a slaver complaining about their freedom to deny another their freedom. If that awful gpl software is so stinky, great news, you don't have to use it! How awesome is that?