[TriLUG] I have some sticky licensing questions

[Scott Chilcote]

On 07/05/2013 01:30 PM, Peter Neilson wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Jul 2013 13:09:41 -0400, William Sutton
> <william at trilug.org> wrote:
>
>> Ask your favorite IP lawyer?
>>
>> Me, personally, I'd release my code with a BSD license and let them
>> do whatever they want (or nothing at all) with it.
>
> GPL denies the proprietary nature of code (and just about everything
> else). As much as I like rms, and even though I use emacs daily, I
> cannot see using the GPL for serious work. That it is viral just makes
> it worse.
>
>
>>
>> On Fri, 5 Jul 2013, Steve Litt wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm currently writing a standalone Python program that takes the output
>>> of the eLyXer LyX to HTML converter, makes it suitable to make an ePub
>>> ebook file, and produces the table of contents (toc.ncx).
>>>
>>> LyX is licensed GPL2 or later. eLyXer is licensed GPL3 or later. I
>>> dislike GPL3 (too copyleft and restrictive for my taste), and I would
>>> never allow a license based on some future license version. What if
>>> somehow Larry Ellison buys the FSF someday?

I see what you did there.  You said that code was naturally
proprietary.  The implication is that any license that enforces freedom
upon it leaves a taint somehow.  I see that aspect (free vs proprietary)
of any body of code as being the decision of its creator(s), and as a
fellow developer I do my best to respect their intentions.

I sympathise with the FSF in that I find the term viral to be
deceptively negative.  I have benefited tremendously from software whose
authors intended it to be widely shared.  It's up to them to determine
how it is used.  That hasn't kept me from building a career around their
work, much the contrary.

The software licenses that I find truly repugnant are the ones with
pages of inscrutable print that require me to click "I agree" before I
can use something that I already purchased.  They eliminate just about
every right I would otherwise have as the purchaser of a product. 
Compared to that legalized piracy, "viral freedom" almost seems like a
gift from shangri-la!

References:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20031214210634851
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_license

Cordially,

    Scott C.

-- 
Scott Chilcote
Cary, NC USA
scottchilcote at att.net