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DosUSB licence and price (Users)

posted by marcov, 14.12.2008, 17:12

> Many people prefer BSD licenses over GPL due to
> disagreements over which is more free.
(to give an idea why, here is a paragraph I once wrote for our university computer club. It is a bit the BSD opinion, and is mostly written from the view point of a independant developer, or a developer in a small company. And also the viewpoint that that group is a relative big contributor in OSS, specially in the bigger projects.

It's a bit chaotic, because after publication I kept adding to it.

------

(L)GPL:
before using package
- have to take certain responsability on me. (submit fixes back etc)
- Might have to split off code into shared libraries(.so,.dll) due to license, not technical requirements
- Must take a decision if I am obliged to open the source eventually (GPL).
- have to get that authorised -> go to boss. Two cases:
a) small company, or brave boss -> signature. Ready.
b) big company, paper pusher boss -> legal department.
-> 99% of time easier to rewrite package in that time.

BSD:
- Simply use it.
PRO:
- least administrative burden.
- Ease leads to better cooperation then compulsion.
- You are less required to have an own legal division or sell your soul to GNU to use theirs.

CON:
- you might miss a few lines of code from a few sloppy or malignant people/companies.
- You can't write Slashdot stories about squeezing a few build scripts out of router companies. But you don't have to spend resources to try either.


(L)GPL:

CON:
- more serious developers in companies avoid your pkgs, write their own versions, or buy proprietary packages that make open sourcing or abandonwaring at a later point more difficult, since the resulting product is multi-company. Resulting in the overall feedback and contributions being lower, and increased proprietariness of the package.
- license management a drain on resources, even for people that can live with it.

PRO:
- But the idiots that don't read licenses (and are generally less able) *HAVE* to submit fixes back.
- Satisfies a certain percentage of green idealistic students.
- High profile news when you get some company forced to grudly open a few scripts or optimizations (like Linksys like stories where firmwares were forced open.
- .... but that causes whole generations of companies to not use anything even only resembling the (L)GPL).

Result of BSD: nobody has to, but actual use generally leads to cooperation
more than forcing people -> more use and better response quality. Total
effect BSD>(L)GPL+( a few lines of code forced from unwilling companies).

Parallels to the "who is more productive, slaves or free workers?" are not considered far fetched. Forcing people is rarely rewarding, unless you are the RIAA or MPAA.

)

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