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If you want a copyleft license that fits within an 80x25 box, try the Qing Public License.

Can I get there via open source, would I be more profitable going closed source, or should I forget about make money altogether?

Forget about making money altogether. Unless you're Microsoft, it's near impossible to make money selling consumer software.

If there's some way you can tie your software to a service, maybe internet gaming, then you can probably make money, and it really doesn't matter if you're open or closed source. Actually open source is probably better. I suggest you use the QingPL.

To prove my dedication, I hearby release this comment into the public domain.

Release the rest under the QingPL. C'mon, you know you want to ;).

If you're talking about this bug, it's fixed. The time the bug started showing up on slashdot until the time it was fixed in a nightly was only a matter of a couple days.

Sure, you could try to simplify the GPL, but the fact of the matter is that what the GPL is attempting to do is very complicated. I challenge you to propose a simplified GPL which accomplishes the same goals as the GPL. I'm not even sure if the GPL itself accomplishes the goals of the GPL, this hasn't been tested in court at all yet.

I have a simple license, called the QingPL, but it is quite different from the GPL. Most significantly, it does not require that source code be released when a derivitive work is released.

crash mozilla (warning, will crash mozilla).

so could you explain where in that text they do that ?

I license my content to them under the terms of the QingPL. That requires that they license their derivitive works under the QingPL as well. Do you care to explain where they have indicated that they have done that?

Public domain software doesn't force you to do a damn thing.

The GPL does.

The QingPL doesn't. Unless you count forcing you to release derivitive works under the QingPL, but really that's forcing you not to do something (sue people), not forcing you to do something.

In a related story, VA Software (LNUX) reaches a new high.

what other "open-source compatible" licenses exist that would better protect an author's wishes to keep his code in the community, prohibit the said code from being incorporated into a privately controlled, profit-seeking venture against said author's wishes, AND stand up in court?

Really, I don't think it's possible. There simply isn't a good definition of "source code". You have to either rely on individual interpretation (as the GPL did), or you have to spell it all out, and you'll surely leave loopholes.

The other point is that there really is no way to do what the GPL is trying to do without beoming a contract. If you want to close all the loopholes with disclosing the source (assuming you've properly defined source), you have to force people to release the modified source code to the copyright holder at the time the derivitive work is created. Otherwise you enter into a situation where two people can collude to keep the source from the public. But that of course violates one of RMS's principles. The only way around that is by taking away the third parties right to first sale, through an EULA. But that also violates one of RMS's principles. I'm convinced that it's simply not possible to do what the GPL attempts to do without relying on contracts and/or EULAs.

The closest I've come to a copyleft which does not rely on contract law is the QingPL. It isn't a copyleft by the definition given by RMS, because it does not force anyone to release their source code, but it does manage to keep a work "free beer" forever IMHIANALO.

Does the idea of copyleft make sense for things other than software?

Certainly. Imagine if Slashdot was copylefted, and required all submissions to be copylefted. Then anyone could take the writeups, images, posts, moderation results, etc. and create his/her own Slashdot. Maybe they'll make Anonymous Cowards get an automatic +2 bonus. Maybe they'll let you moderate the stories. Maybe they'll have their own moderation system. The possibilities are endless.

This message is licensed under the Qing Public License.