GPL and BSD :) (was Re: Linux and Free BSD CDs

["C.Lamb" <nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk>]

Jim wrote:
> 
> It also depends on what YOU the author of the software feel about the
> issue. Many people spend a large amount of creative time on their 
> software
> and want to share it, source and all, with the world, but not have any one
> else rip it off and use it in proprietary non-open source software for
> profit. The GPL neatly prevents that - it is a good thing. The BSD 
> licence does not prevent this.
> 
Wooohoo! a GPL vs. BSD flamefest! From what I have witnessed, the
direct snarfing of code is very rare - I think MS did it with
their IP stack for Win2000 - without feeding back code to the
original source - It happens with FreeBSD where source changes
from commercial entities are re-submitted for possible inclusion
in later versions. The BSD style though not enforcing GPL
openness doesn't preclude it, heck it's been open for many many 
years and it ain't dead yet :).
In addition, saying that GPL prevents privatising open source is like 
saying law prevents crime - people not comitting crimes prevents 
crime.
Many years ago I wrote a small open source library for PS manipulation 
and drawing. I was naive about licensing and hence it had none.
About 2 years after release I recieved it back. It had undergone
many changes and extensions but it still had the naming convention
I had originally used and the sole additions at the top of the
file were names of people with dates of changes implemented - and
it still had no license (and to this day I presume).
It was originally written as a helping hand for a sheep farmer in New 
Zeland - he wanted to plot GIS info and commercial packages were
too expensive.

Oh well, just a personal tale to say, you can't prevent people 
nicking your stuff as you'll probably never know the person doing the 
theft even existed, but there are a lot of programmers out there who 
even when coming across a piece of code that says 'Kick the Original 
Author' resolutely refuse :)

regards

Chris
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