[kwlug-disc] Permissive vs copyleft licenses

Chris Frey cdfrey at foursquare.net
Fri Dec 11 11:54:54 EST 2020


On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 01:21:25AM -0500, John Sellens wrote:
> Doug Moen uses words like religion, theology, and acolytes when referring
> to the GPL, FSF, and RMS.
> 
> My observations over more then a few years have lead me to conclude that
> his word choices are entirely correct.
> 
> It's largely an unshakeable world view, and non-adherents are, of course,
> going straight to hell.

I think RMS has earned his label.  I'm not even sure he'd be offended
by it. :-)


> (I always find it fun when people act like the FSF and the GPL
> created free software, ignoring everything that had gone before.)

If you're referring to my comment about "would we be where we are
without the GPL", then that's not quite what I meant.  I'm quite
aware that the GPL does not stand alone.  But I suspect it has
given a boost to the open source world and has influenced its
tragectory quite a bit.  Whether it will continue to do so remains
to be seen, but MongoDB appears to be showing that at least its
ideas will.

- Chris





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