GPL is important because it keeps people honest...

GPL is important because it keeps people honest...

Posted Nov 19, 2011 9:45 UTC (Sat) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Interview with Andrew Tanenbaum (LinuxFr.org) by elanthis
Parent article: Interview with Andrew Tanenbaum (LinuxFr.org)

Companies fork the GPL all the time for various reasons. But if something in their fork is interesting and popular then someone else can bring this piece upstream. And this happens quite often (a lot of Linux drivers were created this way: initial awful driver by vendor was redone by someone else).

BSD license gives you no such advantage and GPL license with CLA does not give you such advantage. Ironically enough highly praised dual licensing model works as poisonous pill here. It's not zero-sum game because copies sold under proprietary license at least pay for a development. The worst kind is GPL with CLA and no dual-licensing. That's why even FSF only does this sparingly...

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