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That's true. It would depend on how deeply (or not) any proprietary software within the blob was linked/derived from the GPL bits. But for encouraging contribu
by corford 14y ago
That's true. It would depend on how deeply (or not) any proprietary software within the blob was linked/derived from the GPL bits.
But for encouraging contribution, if a company goes "rogue", the BSD has no real teeth to force them to give anything back.
I largely agree with your last point though. Good old fashioned competition should normally be enough to ensure the user gets a good deal (providing regulators are doing their job and there are no cartels or monopolies).
- einhverfr 14y agoBSD contribution is based on a quid quo pro regarding future contributions. It is just more flexible in this than the GPL is. Consider PostgreSQL for example. Several of the main contributors also release proprietary versions. But they contribute to lower the costs of code maintenance.
- corford 14y agoCorrect but not exactly relevant to what we're talking about (i.e. a company going evil, at which point quid quo pro ceases to have much meaning). We're not talking about what's good for the developer here, we're talking about what's good for the user.