>>> On 2/27/2007 at 10:14 AM, in message <82f04dc40702270814w7a0a9567xb90a5454ad7c1030 at mail.gmail.com>, "Dan Armbrust" <daniel.armbrust.list at gmail.com> wrote: > The fact that all of you have been arguing for this long over the GPL > goes a long way toward showing that the thing it to complicated for > anyone without a law degree to safely touch. Software licensing can be a complicated thing. The GPL is a software license. A person, without a law degree, who thinks they are "safe" because they choose an "uncomplicated" software license may be deluding themselves. > Also, you have left an important aspect out of all of the arguing over > what is better. What if your goal is to have standards? When I > worked in the Mayo Clinic informatics division we wouldn't touch the > GPL - because we wanted our code to be free to everyone - profit or ... > On a similar front - if the Open Office document specifications and > implementations were GPL, Microsoft could not ever (reasonably) > provide the ability to read or write those formats - even if a > government body tells them to. Which explains a lot of why ODF is ... > Apache and Eclipse are two very large and growing software ecosystems. > You know why? No GPL! Ton's of commercial companies use their > software! And many of those commercial companies have people that ... > forced to give away their improvements. The un-improved code is still > available to everyone, just like before... The GPL is reasonably restrictive software license created with a set of goals in mind. You don't have to agree with those goals, but the fact that the GPL conflicts with the goals of the Mayo Clinic, Open Office, Apache, and Eclipse organizations for any or all of software they produce does not diminish the GPL as a useful and effective tool in accomplishing the goals of the FSF. It may help you accomplish some goal of yours at some future time. Who knows? I myself am comforted that I have a list of so many licenses to choose from when I set myself to the task of licensing. And I am glad to have the GPL in that list. That's just my take. Troy