Re: Module proposal: Empathy for GNOME 2.24

["Daniel Svensson" <dsvensson gmail com>]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 4:54 PM, Alan Cox <alan lxorguk ukuu org uk> wrote:
> > Companies don't like GPL as they have to expose their IP and are
>  > afraid to loose money. If the library is LGPL they can still use the
>
>  I would disagree there. Most companies I deal with like the GPL because
>  it means that anything they do provide cannot be ripped off by the
>  competition - which is a real world problem with BSD and LGPL like
>  licenses. So the position you characterise is actually not general - and
>  I think is actually very 1990s

Aha ok, it's at least the deal with most companies I've been in
contact with. BSD is the most popular one as they can just import the
code and no questions asked. LGPL is a bit scary because the fact that
it contains the letters "GPL" makes them feel uncomfortable, but it's
more likely they'll use it, and as for GPL, they are completly
terrified of it. This is ofc due to not knowing enough about how
licenses work, old thinking etc, but doesn't make it less real. The
companies that I'm talking about have actually by getting more aware
of open source software contributed back to other projects, even if
they swallowed some code without contributing back. So even if some
projects are "morally abused", others might benefit. That was mostly
what I tried to say.

>  > about how much time would be required to throw out the GPL-infected
>  > code and replace it with LGPL, together with the time it would take to
>  > get permissions from the people who are not strict GPL-fanatics to
>
>  It strikes me that using words like "infected" and "fanatics" is not the
>  way to persuade people that you are anything but a troll and to have a
>  serious debate. A lot of contributors to projects actually don't think
>  random companies should be able to take and not give back.

Yes ofc, it was pretty rude formulation. Just that this thread is
longer than the GSoC mentors introduction and I was just thinking
about how much code could have been written instead of trying to
change someone's opinion held by what seemed to be personal grudges.
Specially as the goal of this thread is to make the said library more
accessible and widely used. Sorry again for the rude tone used.

-- 
Daniel Svensson