[Discuss] Home NAS redux

[john saylor]

On 1/2/13 14:42 , Rich Pieri wrote:
> The GPL is more restrictive than other licenses because it denies me
> the freedom to distribute free software published under those less
> restrictive (more permissive) licenses combined with GPL software.

using restrictive and permissive to describe licenses is tricky, because 
it is a matter of perspective.

the gpl was devised to give users the 4 freedoms according to stallman. 
all kinds of people have all kinds of problems with it, but many of them 
come down to the fact that gpl requires you to give access to the source 
code. that very thing which many corporations view as giving them a 
competitive advantage.

yes, this is an oversimplification.

i'm not denying that there are solid reasons some people have for 
avoiding the gpl. and it was a clever reply you sent.

but the notions of permissive and restrictive and how they apply to 
software licenses all depend upon the perspective of the speaker. and 
there are other valid perspectives for looking at this issue besides the 
'corporate property' one.

-- 
\js [http://or8.net/~johns/] : i am alive