Microsoft shares Windows tools via open source

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Disagree.

That is not fair to commerce.

It is completely fair. You are using someone(s) else's work. The price for that is that you need to contribute your work. In general, if the GPLed work is too important to be taken out, then it is completely fair that you must contribute your work. For a small contribution from you, the community has given you much. If it's the otherway around, then don't use the GPL code, as it's easy to duplicate its work.

And yes GPL has its potential viral effect.

Yes, it has that potential. But if you understand how it works, you can easily control its propagation. Compared to other licenses, the GPL is one of the easiest to understand, but that doesn't make it any weaker.

...suddenly LGPL code could become GPL which means it is a backdoor to propietary software built on top of it (LGPL'ed libraries).

The owner of anything can suddenly change his mind and choose a different licensing model. But, if you have LGPL code, the author cannot change the license for that specific piece of code and the rights that came with it. The owner may only apply his decision in the next transaction with you, which may be an update or upgrade. You can always choose to upgrade the LGPLed version you have and not have to worry about the vendor's new GPLed version. The backdoor doesn't exist.

This is a license issue that the GPL and all other licenses must follow. Look at XFree86 (not GPLed), many didn't like the new licensing terms that came with version 4.4 so they stayed with the previous ones. And there are projects that are upgrading the old versions under the old license, totally bypassing the new license.

Now on to CPL. It's more or less the same as the GPL. All code you contribute needs to be CPLed, but only if you are distributing. The viral potential is no more or less.

The difference: CPL compiled code can be licensed under a different license, ie. commercially. You are not required to CPL the work where you used the compiled CPL code, nor are you required to distribute the CPL source code. This basically allows anyone to use your work as an addon and without contributing anything. GPLed work has the same affect, but the work can never be changed to another license.

While the GPL might require you to make the GPLed section of the source code freely avaliable, the CPL will require you to take sole reponsibility for all legal issues that might spring up due to your commercial license against any of the contributors to the CPL. (just thought I should mention that)

If Apple dismissed the GPL in favor of the BDS license, they would have dismissed the CPL too.

The real drawback isn't the actual CPL or GPL, it's the fact that they are incompatible. Basically, one cannot use the work of the other and vice verse. This creates separate groups in the open source community that will have trouble working together. One will never build on top of the other, instead they will forever compete against each other (great for MS).

I say go for the GPL, because the amount of GPLed code is much larger than CPLed code. Therefore, in GPLing a work, you have access to a much larger community than with CPL. That is why I think IBM GPLed the JFS and other contributions instead of using their own CPL.

Posted by: doe_z   Posted on: 05/14/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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