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Open source licenses exist to try and prevent attack on open-source by groups privatizing otherwise freely distributed code. It's an arms race. In a world where
by XorNot 4y ago
Open source licenses exist to try and prevent attack on open-source by groups privatizing otherwise freely distributed code. It's an arms race. In a world where copyright's expire on reasonable timeframes, the value of copyleft licenses is vastly reduced since useful code becomes freely available within a reasonable timeframe.
- mortehu 4y agoWhy do you say the code would become freely available? With no copyleft, you could fork any project and keep the code closed forever.
- chii 4y agobut the copyright to that code would expire in another X number of years. So it's equivalent to having GPL on that private fork, but on the timeframe of copyright expiry.
- Scarblac 4y agoNo. The GPL says you must provide the source when asked. In the new situation they would just never distribute it.