4 ms·

If we're going to go with "spirit", why not use the less restrictive license without the potentially scary legal ramifications for large company X? That is, can

If we're going to go with "spirit", why not use the less restrictive license without the potentially scary legal ramifications for large company X? That is, can you tell me why: -- Here's this GPL licensed code. Go ahead and use it, and so long as you keep with the "spirit" of open source, I won't bother suing you. When I die, however, and the executors of my estate notice that they now control copyright on this GPL'd code that you might have used to grow your multi-billion dollar company...all bets are off. ...is better than: -- Here's this BSD licensed code. I'm not going to require anything of you to use it, but I expect you to keep with the "spirit" of open source and contribute back to the community. If you don't I have no legal means to force your hand, but if you die and haven't contributed back, your fork dies with you.

davidw 17y ago
Like I said, talk with the person/people/org, and understand their situation. I've talked with some people who are real GPL zealots, who are really not interested in the idea of proprietary software at all, and you can take their code as is, or leave it. Others are willing to work with you when they see some potential advantages to a more liberal license. A lot of people, probably the majority, just don't want to feel "ripped off", so if you're using their software, you should respect the license (it's not that hard with the GPL) both in the spirit (which may vary from person to person) and in the letter, and see if there's a way to come to an agreement if things don't quite match. And sometimes people in this latter category don't understand the GPL well either, so talking with them is likely to smooth things over in any case, if what you're using is something important to your business. And consider that in the worst case, you're no worse off than if you encountered a proprietary-licensed library that was too expensive for you to use.
wmf 17y ago
The spirit of the GPL and BSD licenses are different, especially for libraries (ignoring people who accidentally use GPL instead of LGPL).

davidw 17y ago

Like I said, talk with the person/people/org, and understand their situation. I've talked with some people who are real GPL zealots, who are really not interested in the idea of proprietary software at all, and you can take their code as is, or leave it. Others are willing to work with you when they see some potential advantages to a more liberal license. A lot of people, probably the majority, just don't want to feel "ripped off", so if you're using their software, you should respect the license (it's not that hard with the GPL) both in the spirit (which may vary from person to person) and in the letter, and see if there's a way to come to an agreement if things don't quite match. And sometimes people in this latter category don't understand the GPL well either, so talking with them is likely to smooth things over in any case, if what you're using is something important to your business. And consider that in the worst case, you're no worse off than if you encountered a proprietary-licensed library that was too expensive for you to use.

wmf 17y ago

The spirit of the GPL and BSD licenses are different, especially for libraries (ignoring people who accidentally use GPL instead of LGPL).