We're talking about the difference between the GPL and say the BSD license, not necessarily choosing whether or not to release the software at all. Yea, in the

We're talking about the difference between the GPL and say the BSD license, not necessarily choosing whether or not to release the software at all. Yea, in the latter that definitely limits user freedoms. But I think people who choose either of those licenses are already releasing their code. It's just that the BSD has a wider contributor base, as businesses could be more likely to contribute back. What I mean is, if the code is available then the quantity of people benefiting from it is separate from the idea of user freedom. User freedom, in the GPL sense, is freedom to read, copy, modify and redistribute the code and to do the same for anyone else's modifications to that code.