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Mike Loukides on Java's Community License

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the battle-of-the-licenses dept.

jbc writes "Here's an opinion piece from O'Reilly's web site titled The Chameleon and the Virus: More Thoughts on Java's Community License. Gist: The viral, coercive GPL has retarded acceptance of open source software. Java's more flexible license can help bring more people into the movement. "

1 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Chameleon Flag Protectors by dgenr8 · · Score: 4


    The O'Reilly stance reminds me of Americans who think it should be illegal to burn the flag, failing to see that, because the flag itself symbolizes the freedom to burn it, enacting such a law would actually destroy what it was meant to protect.

    To say the GPL is coercive, and ought to be superceded, is to say that open source is so important that we have to sacrifice a little bit of its essence in order to ensure its continued existence. It is to say, wrongly, that freedom is so important we must restrict ourselves from burning the flag.

    I do agree with Loukides on one point, though. We should be using a carrot and not a stick. The hot rhetoric in the preamble to the GPL belies the fact that, by releasing GPLed software, you are doing something really nice. Why the FSF has chosen to characterize it in the opposite way -- that by NOT using the GPL you are somehow oppressing people -- is beyond me.