[nycbug-talk] Re: wasabi

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006, Isaac Levy wrote:

> Conversely, keeping things flexible
> 
> If you think software is a service, using BSD license works just fine.
> If you insist software should be a product, BSD license works just fine.
> 
> If you want to do business with people who carry both of these ideas
> respectively, the GPL gets in the way.
If I think that releasing free software is a good thing, and more free 
software is a good thing, and that people who use my software should be 
forced to release their changes, I use GPL.

If I want to make money off my software, I release under commercial 
restrictive license.


> Though to really put my mouth where my heart is, I'm a pretty firm
> believer that the GPL is a sort of fascist, absolutist freedom for
> software.  I believe the authors, and the spirit of the GPL, values
> source code and machine cycles, far more than human life and liberties.
> With that, I tend to simply see machines and code as extensions of human
> beings, and disagree with the GPL.
I value time I spent writing code. I want to be compensated for it. Either
by being paid by licensee (commercial license), or by forcing other people
to release their improvements to my software (which hopefully will be
somewhat useful to me).

I don't see place for a BSD license. I'm not *that* altruistic, I guess.

> (Some folks say that view is a stretch, but kick back with a printout of
> the GPL on your next subway ride and then tell me why I'm wrong.)
This is becoming a flamewar.

-alex