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the GPL does almost nothing for people who don't hack on code Yes, it does. Because of copyleft reciprocity, all users benefit from modified and enhanced copie

the GPL does almost nothing for people who don't hack on code Yes, it does. Because of copyleft reciprocity, all users benefit from modified and enhanced copies to the software.

kstenerud 11y ago
Except for the loss in innovation due to companies that will not touch GPL for fear of being forced to divulge the trade secrets in their code. If a company could be sure that nothing in their code could jeopardize their competitive advantage, there'd be no problem with exposing it to the world. But the real world often doesn't work that way. And to make matters even worse, people often get it wrong when deciding what needs to be protected, and what doesn't.
- Spivak 11y ago
  > Except for the loss in innovation due to companies that will not touch GPL for fear of being forced to divulge the trade secrets in their code. That's exactly the point of the GPL. Look, we as human beings would be all better off without trade secrets, without closed source, and with the explicit permission to tinker, modify, and improve the products we use every day. You as a user should want all of the rights afforded to you by the GPL. You should want to know how all of your devices work. You should want to be able to do what you please with them and not just what the company you bought it from wants you to do with it. Yes, we get it, companies don't want to tell people their secrets, but that's not the fault of the GPL. It's the fault of every user like you who is apathetic toward proprietary software, who thinks it's okay to exploit and profit off of others ignorance while perpetuating a legal framework that mandates that ignorance.
  - pbreit 11y ago
    "we as human beings would be all better off without trade secrets, without closed source, and with the explicit permission to tinker, modify, and improve the products we use every day." So, without Apple products? I don't think so. Far from it.
    - marrs 11y ago
      Are you joking? Apple products are the most locked down and functionally inept of them all. Remind me again how I can drag and drop music onto my iPod, or for that matter play an ogg or flac file on it, or switch to a different task on my Mac without its app and all of its windows taking over my entire desktop, or lock my screen without knowing some arcane keyboard shortcut, or find my home directory in the finder? Not only is OS X by far the hardest to learn and use of any of the desktops, free or non-free, it is also the least customisable. I can't even buy software to make the window manager usable because Apple won't provide the API to make it possible.

the GPL does almost nothing for people who don't hack on code Yes, it does. Because of copyleft reciprocity, all users benefit from modified and enhanced copies to the software.

kstenerud 11y ago

Except for the loss in innovation due to companies that will not touch GPL for fear of being forced to divulge the trade secrets in their code. If a company could be sure that nothing in their code could jeopardize their competitive advantage, there'd be no problem with exposing it to the world. But the real world often doesn't work that way. And to make matters even worse, people often get it wrong when deciding what needs to be protected, and what doesn't.

Spivak 11y ago
> Except for the loss in innovation due to companies that will not touch GPL for fear of being forced to divulge the trade secrets in their code. That's exactly the point of the GPL. Look, we as human beings would be all better off without trade secrets, without closed source, and with the explicit permission to tinker, modify, and improve the products we use every day. You as a user should want all of the rights afforded to you by the GPL. You should want to know how all of your devices work. You should want to be able to do what you please with them and not just what the company you bought it from wants you to do with it. Yes, we get it, companies don't want to tell people their secrets, but that's not the fault of the GPL. It's the fault of every user like you who is apathetic toward proprietary software, who thinks it's okay to exploit and profit off of others ignorance while perpetuating a legal framework that mandates that ignorance.
- pbreit 11y ago
  "we as human beings would be all better off without trade secrets, without closed source, and with the explicit permission to tinker, modify, and improve the products we use every day." So, without Apple products? I don't think so. Far from it.
  - marrs 11y ago
    Are you joking? Apple products are the most locked down and functionally inept of them all. Remind me again how I can drag and drop music onto my iPod, or for that matter play an ogg or flac file on it, or switch to a different task on my Mac without its app and all of its windows taking over my entire desktop, or lock my screen without knowing some arcane keyboard shortcut, or find my home directory in the finder? Not only is OS X by far the hardest to learn and use of any of the desktops, free or non-free, it is also the least customisable. I can't even buy software to make the window manager usable because Apple won't provide the API to make it possible.