Re: GPL v3? Other license options?

["Joshua D. Drake" <..hidden..>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

John Locke wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>> Hello,

> As a commercial company, I prefer releasing code under the GPL instead
> of the LGPL (or the Apache or the BSD licenses, etc), simply because it
> prevents competitors from taking my code, extending it, and
> commercializing it without distributing their enhancements. 

Incorrect :) at least for the LGPL. The reason I like the LGPL is that a
competitor can take my code, extend it and commercialize it but they
*must* distribute their enhancements as GPL/LGPL if those enhancements
are to the code that I created.

Thus my original product that was extended will always be available not
only to myself and my community but the enhancements will as well.
Further, items that rely on my product may be closed without retribution
or distribution.

Case in point. Glibc is LGPL which is the only reason Linux has Oracle,
because Oracle can link and stay closed but if Oracle was to modify
Glibc , they must open that modification.

The LGPL (without all the political stuff) is the fairest (imo) of all
the FOSS licenses.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake


> The GPL
> keeps the playing field level, prevents my code from being unfairly used
> against me. As far as which version, I don't know enough about v3 to
> make an informed decision, so we're sticking to v2 for the time being.
> 
> But most of this is an academic discussion--until all the legacy code is
> gone, I don't believe the project has the right to change to any other
> license. I do see in the last SQL-Ledger distribution on my server
> (2.6.23) that the code is released under version 2 or later, so moving
> to v3 is an option if this is the same licensing terms as the version
> you started the fork from. As long as the project can be considered a
> derivative work, I don't think it can use any other license.
> 
> Cheers,
> 


- --

      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564   24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
PostgreSQL solutions since 1997  http://www.commandprompt.com/
			UNIQUE NOT NULL
Donate to the PostgreSQL Project: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate
PostgreSQL Replication: http://www.commandprompt.com/products/

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFGxzvKATb/zqfZUUQRAqkvAJ92UwYhut27oqEhpvntQZZUTXbU2QCdE88k
ZpiN/lXSrDAN7HKlSBmOyW0=
=AGmm
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----