The future of copyleft (was: [A]GPL vs Apache 2)
Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs@debian.org> writes:
> I think the world is changing now. 15 years ago, when I started, GPL
> was the license. Then, Free Software itself was young and not very
> successful commercially.
> […]
> Even HP, in the LWN article, mentions that. Getting a project to be
> commercially viable, mandates that it has room to be made proprietary.
> Otherwise, chances of organization embracing and collaborating on it
> is zilch.
Conversely, without the obligation written into the license conditions
and a credible body to enforce those conditions, the chances of a
corporation voluntarily releasing their changes as free software is also
very low.
Capitalism impels every corporation to seek the removal of any barrier
on its operation, without regard for the good of any other party. That
alone is sufficient to explain why corporations tend to object to
copyleft.
Some specific corporations have more specific reasons, of course, but
even without those we should expect by the nature of a corporation that
they will in general prefer any license to have as few terms restricting
them as possible.
Copyleft is for the good of society and community as a whole; we should
not expect that corporations will of their own accord seek licenses that
restrict their actions we consider harmful. We must as a society impose
(through legal means) restrictions on corporate abuse of freedoms.
> It turns out most people find GPL type licenses too restrictive these
> days. Just that who is it "restrictive" for ?
The ‘debian-legal’ forum isn't really good for discussing this; it's
certainly not special to Debian, it is a matter to be discussed in the
wider software community. That said, I can point you to some resources.
Bradley Kuhn has a talk presented several times (one recently at
LinuxConf Australia 2015) that addresses this in detail.
Considering the Future of Copyleft: How Will The Next Generation
Perceive GPL?
<URL:http://lca2015.linux.org.au/schedule/30148/>
<URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ItFjEG3LaA>
Stefano Zacchiroli presented at DebConf 2014 on the recent decline of
the technology world away from software freedom, and what we must do.
Debian in the Dark Ages of Free Software
<URL:http://debconf14-video.debian.net/video/240/debian-in-the-dark-ages-of-free-software>
--
\ “I got fired from my job the other day. They said my |
`\ personality was weird. … That's okay, I have four more.” |
_o__) —Bug-Eyed Earl, _Red Meat_ |
Ben Finney
Reply to: