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How Many Open Source Licenses Do You Need?
jammag writes "Bruce Perens, who wrote the original licensing rules for Open Source software in 1997, notes that there are a sprawling 73 open source licenses currently in existence. But he identifies an essential four — well, actually just two — that developers, companies, and individuals need. In essence, he cuts through the morass and shows developers, in particular, how to protect their work. (And yes, he favors GPL3 over GPL2.) For his own coding work, he's fond of the 'sharing with rules' license, which stays true to the Open Source ethos of shared code yet also enables him to get paid by companies who use it in their commercial products."
I've emailed several of the OSI members,
and they tell me that the GPL -- and Stallman's
new variants -- are effectively grandfathered.
They really don't pass the OSI standards of
non-discrimination, yet, they are approved by
OSI for political reasons.
That Bruce pushes the GPL makes it even more funny. Perhaps he should join the FSF instead?
To me the GPL is a sad license. There are 10 types of people that prefer GPL over BSD.
0 - People who think they are God's gift to humanity, and the best coders in the world. And one day might want to sell their code to some evil company that will realize how good they are. Psst. If you are so good why are you unemployed?
1 - People who lack any kind of confidence in human nature, and think that people must be forced to do good things, aka the Stalin^H^Hlmanists.
I only contribute to BSD and MIT licensed projects because they do it for the welfare of humanity and not their own proprietary agenda. We are where we are because we stood on the shoulders of giants.
Keeping people out of your advancements in the name of freedom is not any different than keeping them out in the name of economical benefit.
If something I write cannot be sold to a big company for a few billion dollars, it probably could have been written by anyone. Yes someone had to write it, but what's the meaning in keeping it to yourself and forcing other people to reinvent the wheel over and over again? I am more than happy leaving my name there in history as one of the valiants who moved the world forward.
Current Linux kernel source won't be free until circa 2300 when its copyright expires(Hope that lifespans don't get longer). BSD kernels are free now.
* sends money to BSD-licensed PCC compiler to get rid of yet another GNU blob *