[plug] [article] Open Code Market (OCM)

[Cameron Patrick]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 06:59:06PM +0800, James Devenish wrote:
| > I just think that saying an unqualified "The GPL restricts the
| > licensing of your code" is at best misleading and easily
| > interpreted as something which is incorrect.
| 
| I did qualify my statement, but maybe the qualification got separated
| from the original statement due to the insertion of replies (damn-it,
| those side-posters were right all along!).

After re-reading your original post with the parenthetical about
derivative works, I'll admit it isn't as bad as I had thought.

BTW, side-posters?  I've heard of top-posters and bottom-posters but
side-posters is a new one on me.

| Additions to a C programme, for instance, involve modification of a
| programme's source (header files, Makefiles, documentation), so I
| thought they must be distributed as derivative works. That means
| putting your code under the GPL and being willing to distribute the
| entire modified programme.

(Clarification: some of, not all of, your code, must be under the GPL.
AIUI you can license all-new source files under a freer licence,
allowing it to be ripped out of the GPL'ed software and re-used in, er,
non-GPL-encumbered code.)

Again, that's /why/ people choose to use the GPL rather than another
licence.  It means that people can't (legally) just wander off with your
GPL-licensed source code, hack some improvements to it, and distribute
it as something that is less free than your original work.  To me, that
is an advantage of the GPL over other, simpler licences such the BSD
licence.  Conversely, the reason that I don't like the GPL that much is
that it's a 17kb chunk of dense legal wording that is very easy for
someone to unintentionally not follow---which, in turn, is why people
often get upset at the debian-legal types who find these kind of
problems, which distract from the productive effort spent actually
coding stuff.  And writing stuff is the whole reason why we have these
licences at all, n'est-ce pas?

| > | Agreed (coming back to my point that the GPL sacrifices freedom for
| > | openness).
| > 
| > Fair enough.  I obviously just don't perceive this as being a problem in
| > the way that you seem to.
| 
| That is the interesting thing.

Er, I suppose it is.

Cameron.

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