[tclug-list] errors in "Why you should use a BSD style license for your Open Source Project"

John Baldwin jhb at freebsd.org
Tue Feb 27 17:56:19 UTC 2007


On Tuesday 27 February 2007 08:13, Jon Schewe wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-02-26 at 09:13 -0600, Mike Miller wrote:
> > In the end, you basically suggest that the sole advantage of the BSD 
> > license over the GPL is that the BSD license attracts developers who want 
> > to use a proprietary model of software development. In other words, the 
> > BSD license is best for those who would like to profit from our code 
> > without giving back any code to the developer community.  What's good 
> > about that?  That clearly is the core issue.  Couldn't you have left off 
> > nearly everything else and just told the reader why he should want his 
> > code to be used in proprietary software projects that compete with open 
> > source projects?
> 
> What about people that want to use your project and are willing to give
> back to the project patches to improve the project, but are unable to
> open source the software they are writing that uses your project?

Not to mention the whole BSD TCP/IP stack deal that improved interoperability 
of the internet since it wasn't encumbered with a more restrictive license, 
and thus both Open and Closed Source products could use it.  The BSD license 
is about letting people share code with a very wide audience.

-- 
John Baldwin



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