[Discuss] OSS licenses

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 01/03/2013 04:02 PM, Doug wrote:
> I have a new software project, and don't know which license to use.
> The first thing to point out is that the project is minor and few will
> ever care about it.  The consequences of choosing a different license
> are trivial.
>
> My decision was between Apache 2.0 and GPLv3.  I had read that the
> Apache 2.0 was like an upgrade to a BSD license.  One of my targets
> for the software is an Android phone.  I went with the Android crowd
> which appears to have much of their software licensed under Apache.
>
> The project is purely academic.  I cannot see a way to turn a buck on
> the software (bummer for me).
>
> If you had the choice, which of those two licenses would you choose
> and why?  You may get me to change my mind.

If you want your project to be able to get the widest possible use, then 
use BSD/Apache.  As someone who does a lot of prototyping / throwaway 
projects, I heavily favor BSD over GPL when I'm looking for support 
libraries.  It's less book-keeping I have to do if anyone wants to take 
my stuff and do some productization (i.e., if I use GPL libraries, I 
have to be careful about where they're used so that they don't sneak in 
and contaminate other things).

If it bugs you that someone else might take parts of your project and 
incorporate that into a proprietary project, use GPL.  Your project will 
only be usable in a small subset of applications (even with respect to 
the world of "open source").  But you will have the satisfaction of 
knowing that no one is free-riding.

That's really the crux of it I think.

HTH,
Matt