On Monday, 13 January 2014 at 08:07:42 UTC, Joseph Rushton
Wakeling wrote:
Right, but they are not merely using -- they are redistributing
(and distributing derivative works). The GPL places certain
constraints here, I think we can all agree, but it can hardly
be described as "intrusive"; there's no obligation to base
one's work on GPL-licensed code.
If the whole topic is basing one project on another, as in the
current discussion, than that's utterly besides the point.
Don't get me wrong, I'm rather sympathetic with the Free Software
philosophy, and in fact I consider (A)GPL for all my projects.
But if the fear of tainting a commercial product (such as the DMC
backend) with code under an incompatible license is a concern,
then "intrusive" is precisely the right word to describe GPL.
There is a reason that many bigger companies outright ban it,
whether that is ultimately a sane thing to do or not.
David
