[UFO Chicago] WCLUG on Thursday, January 2

[Mike McCune]

All licenses are restrictive. That is their purpose. The GPL is still a l=
ot=20
less restrictive than any proprietary license I've seen.=20

The BSD license is by nature not restrictive. The only problem with BSD=20
licensed software is that it has to compete with proprietary versions of=20
itself. This is the reason why Wine was changed from a BSD type license t=
o=20
the GPL. Some programmers (like transgaming) would use the code but not=20
release improvements. The BSD license is great for users but not for=20
developers.

> The GNU license is pretty restrictive and virus-like in nature. Unless =
you
> read it front to back, don't even try to argue this.
>
> A great example is a GNU program I added a bit of funtionality to. Then=
 I
> read the license that would have to apply to my changes and after reali=
zing
> that I did not have the option of changing any of it, decided not to sh=
are
> any of it.
>
> Nothing was stifled there or anything because of a parasitic must apply=
 to
> all new changes or revisions to software agreement. The "open season" B=
SD
> style license is the only reasonable one I've seen for "free" software.
>
> KEN