GPL vs BSD Licence

[Graham Bentley]

Hi List !

Perusing the Internet the other day I came across a short
interview with Linus Torvalds from a while back. He was
asked about the GPL vs BSD Licence. 

As I dont fully understand the development process I was 
wondering if anyone could comment on his reply below?

I (mis?)interpret this as follows :-

If you use some BSD code in some project that you turn into
proprietry code you just need to include the appropriate 
acknowledgement statements - but you can exclude 
anyone from using that new code / solution.

With the GPL you are explicitly giving away your right to do this 
whilst at the same time leaving a the door open for others if they 
want to use your code / solution.

Sorry if this has been discussed at length before on the list
but I think its an intersting topic and would welcome
enlightenment.

--- snip ---

Q: Do you ever wish you'd opted for a BSD-style license instead
of the GPL?

LT: Absolutely not. I personally think that the BSD license is a dead 
end for serious projects, since it inevitably results in forking with no 
way to re-join if it becomes commercially viable.

Forking a project is in my opinion hugely important, since forks are 
how all real development gets done, and the ability to fork keeps 
everybody honest (i.e. if you don't do a good job and keep your 
users happy, they can always fork the project and go on their own)
But equally important is the ability to join back forks, when/if some 
group finds the right solution to a problem. And that's where the 
GPL comes in: you can really think of the whole license as nothing 
more than a requirement to be able to re-join a forked project from 
either side.

-- snip ---

Edit: Apache/FreeBSD seem to have come along way 
for a 'non-serious projects' :)







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