[kwlug-disc] Permissive vs copyleft licenses

[Mikalai Birukou]

Can I connect this to Monday's talk about voting?

"If you don't pay attention to politics, time comes when politics comes 
after you."

Choice of licensing is a political choice. You set the policy around 
your software.

In my talk I've referenced Belarus. I think it is possible to find 
RMS-like figure in Belarus politics. Someone saying right things for 
decades, scorned for sticking to principles. Now population is waking up 
to a nightmare they've helped create. Ironic? Is it the right word?


On 2020-12-09 1:10 p.m., Doug Moen wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 9, 2020, at 11:39 AM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
>> Considering that the GPL exists to
>> protect the freedom of *people* using software, and they're abandoning
>> the GPL, ...
> The problem is that the GPL doesn't exist to protect the freedom of people *developing* software. And since software licences are chosen by software developers, it maybe isn't too surprising that 2/3 of projects choose a permissive licence that prioritizes the developer's own freedom over user freedom.
>
> As it says in the article, "The world has changed – and code freedom is being overtaken by developer freedom."
>
>> --Bob.
>>
>>
>> On 2020-12-08 9:54 p.m., Jason Eckert wrote:
>>> It definitely looks like permissive licenses have really become the
>>> standard for most projects over this past decade - here's one more project
>>> that decided to switch from GPL to the Apache license as a result (citing
>>> their rationale):
>>> https://terminusdb.com/blog/2020/12/08/we-love-gplv3-but-are-switching-license-to-apache-2-0-terminusdb/
>>>