[Discuss] Home NAS redux

[Edward Ned Harvey (blu)]

> From: Mark Woodward [mailto:markw at mohawksoft.com]
> 
> (talking about CDDL)
>
> Well, I personally dislike the lack of freedom in the license and the
> fact that I can't, according to the license, create a proper kernel
> module. It has to be used as a FUSE system and that isn't acceptable.

CDDL grants more freedom than GPL.  That is why it's incompatible with GPL.  Because CDDL explicitly allows code developers to distribute their code under other licenses, and keep some of it closed source if they want to.  GPL explicitly disallows that freedom, which is why CDDL is incompatible with GPL.

If you are a free software developer, developing under GPL, you are putting restrictions on the way your code can be used by the recipient, and you are opening the door for a 3rd party to sue the recipient on your behalf, without any benefit to you.  Such is the case (for example) with the FSF suing linksys for incorporating busybox into their routers without notification to consumers.  The developers of busybox had nothing to do with the lawsuit, and did not benefit from the lawsuit.  

If you read the terms of L-GPL, the FSF goes off on a rant about how you shouldn't grant such freedoms to the recipient, because the recipient can profit from your freely distributed code, without benefitting you.  They say you should use GPL instead, which doesn't grant the recipient freedom to profit from your free code.  They neglect to mention that if you use GPL, then the FSF can and will seek opportunity to profit from your code in the form of lawsuit against the recipient, if the recipient is found to be in violation of any of the GPL imposed restrictions.

I acknowledge and understand that there are pros and cons of both licenses, philosophically and materially.  I'm not saying one license is better than another, as a generalization; although in specific cases, each license can sometimes be better than the other.

I am saying the statement representing CDDL as a "lack of freedom" and bias in favor of GPL on these grounds, is factually incorrect.