I Don’t Like the GPL
The GPL is annoying. I understand the people that use this license for their software want to ensure that nobody makes a profit from the work that they have freely provided, I understand that by using the GPL you ensure the progression of open source software. What I don’t like about it is that it can handcuff other open source developers who want to use some GPL’ed code in their project. If I’m working on an open source project and I want anyone to be able to use it – for profit or not – I can’t use any GPL code. By using any GPL licensed code, the developer is required to license all of their code using the GPL as well.
So now I’ve got to decide whether or not to use some GPL code, which means I’m not choosing the code based on its quality, but rather the tradeoff between quality and a restrictive license. Do I want to use this great, free, open source code that will force me into a license, or this other, not-quite-as-good code that gives me the freedom to license my code however I want. I don’t see the winner in this situation. I’m being hampered by the license, the guy who wrote the GPL code isn’t making money anyways, and now his code is potentially unusable by some audiences because of the license, and the end users potentially won’t get a quality product as quickly.
If you are not trying to make money, I would think your primary goal is to get recognition for some great code you wrote, and the way to get that recognition is to get as many people using it as possible. It almost seems selfish to forbid others from making money by using your code in their product (not simply repackaging your code, but using it), wouldn’t you rather you maximize the number of people who found your code useful? By licensing your code under the GPL you force people to lose focus on making great software, instead concerning them with the politics of “free” software.
gappleby said,
Wrote on June 13, 2005 @ 10:24 pm
Dude. You speak true.
You also run the risk of being slashdotted in such a big way *laughs*
It’s for the reasons you give that all the code samples I give on my blog do not mention licensing whatsoever. When I wrote code samples on my blog, it’s for others to learn by and perhaps use if it helps them with code that they are writing. I wouldn’t publish it this way if I wasn’t expecting people to steal it and use it.
I view open source software (as opposed to snippets that appear in blogs) in the same light. It serves two purposes – it gives you a possibly usable app, and it also shows how to perform a particular task (or many). When I release anything open source, I more often than not consider it a complete ‘howto’ guide, rather than a packaged and unchangable application.
What’s very cool is that for a few of the snippets I’ve posted on my blog people _have_ actually contacted me to ask if they can use it commercial software. I neither demand nor expect it, but the honest folk out there still ask. And my response is always the same. ‘Go for your life, use it however you see fit!’.
I normally also ask them to send me back any bugs found (or fixes applied) but that’s optional, and only because I always like to learn what I did wrong too
Sometimes I ask for a credit in the release notes, but that is also made very clear that that is entirely up to them as well
Anonymous said,
Wrote on June 13, 2005 @ 10:57 pm
Heartily seconded. The Lesser GPL would be a much better alternative as it doesn’t handcuff the consumer into releasing their code as GPL. It seems to me that a lot of people just whack their code under GPL without actually thinking about what it means to everybody else to do so.
Anonymous said,
Wrote on June 14, 2005 @ 4:21 am
Anonymous said,
Wrote on June 14, 2005 @ 5:41 am
Anonymous said,
Wrote on June 14, 2005 @ 6:11 am
It’s fair to say that if you want to use the code any other way you should consider buying it.
breichelt said,
Wrote on June 14, 2005 @ 6:51 am
Geoff – About the slashdotting, I know thats a definite possibility
TomCat – I would have no problem purchasing the code, but there are 2 issues:
1. The code might not even be available for purchase, some code is GPL and GPL only.
2. I want to write free, open source software, whichs means I really don’t want to be paying for code that I’m going to be releasing for free. I don’t want to charge for my code, but I want others to have the option to use it commercially. Given that I will have no revenue stream, I’d rather not put money into it.