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There's a long history of companies being sued over GPL. For instance, that's how we have OpenWRT. This lawsuit won't change many companies' attitudes. Either y
by logn 12y ago
There's a long history of companies being sued over GPL. For instance, that's how we have OpenWRT. This lawsuit won't change many companies' attitudes. Either you're a company who's already embraced GPL and figured out how to make money with it, or you've rejected GPL (and if anything, in the latter group, some will start paying more attention to contract law).
If EMC wins the lawsuit, I'd seriously consider never releasing open source code again, and I'm sure many developers would feel similarly. There are many jobs that exist only because of open source. The damage done by EMC winning this lawsuit would be substantial. And for companies who pay for their employees to develop GPL code, you think they're going to be happy if competing companies start absorbing their code into proprietary systems?
- skybrian 12y agoThat seems a bit drastic. If the GPLv2 doesn't do what you want it to do, perhaps another license will work better?
- logn 12y agoAffero GPL is the only license that has made sense to me business-wise. If EMC prevailed and it was based on some flaw in the GPL, then fine let's correct it and everything would be (eventually) better. But if the linking provisions or other fundamental theories in the GPL are found the be unenforceable or fatally flawed, it would give me pause. I'd have to research the ramifications and whether it's a precedent that would defang the license in Germany and effects globally. I think most of my customers would be ok with some kind of commercial license that also provides them rights over the source itself. If GPL is a risk, I'd ditch it. I have no enormous legal budget, so if companies start thinking they can win GPL lawsuits, it's not worth it.