>>> On 2/27/2007 at 7:45 AM, in message
<Pine.GSO.4.60.0702270744470.16476 at taxa.epi.umn.edu>, Mike Miller
<mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Feb 2007, Florin Iucha wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 27, 2007 at 07:13:31AM -0600, 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?
>>
>> What about them?
>> Why would they be unable?  If they are unable to open-source the
>> project (because they are just programmers and not
>> managers/vice-presidents) then maybe they don't have the authority to
>> commit the company on using the free software in the first place.
> 
> Or the authority to send back patches to improve the project.
> Mike

They may be using another piece of software, as 
part of their project, with an entirely different 
license (not the GPL) that may not allow them to
license their entire project however they wish
(similar to the GPL). And yet they may have full 
authority to license and send the code and patches 
THEY write to whomever they wish.

Where licenses collide, the GPL can make headaches, 
where the BSD license can resolve them. That's not 
a blanket endorsement of the BSD license, but just
one use for it. I prefer the GPL for things I do, 
when it makes sense. Lucky, for me, it usually does.

:-)

Troy