bsd vs gpl

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

prad wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:20:18 -0700
> prad <prad at towardsfreedom.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> do people here have any thoughts on the two different licenses?
>>
>>     
> thank you everyone for your comments on this topic.
>
> the links some of you provided were very interesting and helpful.
> i had no idea there were so many licenses either!!!
>
> it is a curious situation that the 'freedom' which insists on
> propagating itself (gpl), can be argued to be not really free, while
> 'freedom' without such a restriction can permit its own termination.
>
> i like this summation the best:
>
> "The bottom line is, the GPL is not anti-commercial or anti-
> capitalistic; it is only anti-proprietary. The BSD license, on the
> other hand, is very unrestrictive, and allows proprietary knockoffs.
> Which you choose depends on what you need and what you value. There's
> nothing more to it than that."
> (http://slashdot.org/articles/99/06/23/1313224.shtml)
>
> now off to establish what we value ...
>
>   
Just curious, why is what a 5 year-old article having to say with 
regards to licensing at all
relevant?

These licenses aren't worth the paper they are printed on until tested 
in court.  The Monsoon
Multimedia/BusyBox lawsuit, which was started years after this article 
was written, is far
more relevant.

Ted