RE: [binarycloud-dev] LGPL

[Peter B. <re...@f2...>]

At 02:40 PM 6/14/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Well, neither LGPL nor BSD force re-contribution if another product isn't=
=20
>distributed.

This is the one thing that worries me about the accepted open source=20
licenses: they make it too easy not to have to contribute improvements, and=
=20
give you the ability to fork.

It is the forking part that I really don't like, and I believe it is=20
harming the community rather than helping it.  Look at Linux or PHP-Nuke=20
for an example.  If everyone had worked together on either of those=20
products rather than developing their own version, they would be much=20
further on.

For this reason I have never released my code under an open source=20
license.  In fact my code isn't licensed at all, which is worse, but I=20
haven't found a license I like and/or understand yet :-)

By all means, let people modify the code to suit their uses, but make them=
=20
distribute the modifications as patches or modules, rather than forking and=
=20
forming a new distribution called asciicloud, replicating all that already=
=20
exists in binarycloud and just changing a few small areas... and diluting=20
the programmers over two very similar projects.

<soapbox>
Recently I have come across a few PHP projects where the owner has changed=
=20
the license from GPL or similar, because people have been using the script=
=20
in ways he never intended it to be (e.g. as a module in PHP-Nuke, with the=
=20
credit removed).  I do believe in open source, but I also do not like=20
licenses which say that everything must be free, which the GPL does.

People are not all programming for nothing (as thankfully Alex seems to be=
=20
doing with Binarycloud) - I personally would like to see licenses which=20
make the product free for personal use, and cost $$ for business use,=20
become more accepted on the internet.  That way I could fund my way through=
=20
University by selling <promote> sendcard <http://www.sendcard.f2s.com>=20
</promote> :-)
</soapbox>

Just my =A300.02
Peter.


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