Kay C Lan wrote:
On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 11:57 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
There are many open source licenses.
...just because a system succeeds doesn't mean it can't be made better.
Of course. Ours is an imperfect world. No single license can serve all
goals, and all systems can always be improved.
My only point was that the GPL seems a reasonably good fit for LiveCode
Ltd's goals with its Community Edition.
You offered the success of Linux as proof of the pudding as to how
great GPL is but you failed to mention that the Linux Kernel is
forever held to GPL v 2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#GPL_version_3
Yes, Linux uses GPL.
I don't see where my not noting which specific version of the GPL the
project uses is necessarily a "failure". I'm just a developer; my job
does not involve either managing the Linux project nor advocating any
specific licenses for others to use. I merely share the opinion of
LiveCode Ltd's counsel that the GPL is a good fit for their goals at
this time.
As a very separate side matter unrelated to what I wrote, the
differences between GPL v2 and v3 are indeed interesting, esp. in our
modern world of rampant software patent abuse.
One of the reasons GPL v2 is especially useful for Linux is that GPL v3
includes limitations on patent claims, while Linux has been spared from
being abused by patent trolls by using the more patent-neutral language
of GPL v2 to build a massive pool of defensive patents - anyone who
might consider suing Linux over a patent will likely be counter-sued
into oblivion:
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/2654277/applications/consortium-launches-linux-patent-pool.html>
Quite clever of them, though I prefer New Zealand's solution as even
simpler: as a general rule their courts don't normally hear cases for
software patents at all.
But we digress....
Nor did you indicate that the majority of GPL software is still GPL v
2 or that the percentage of OSS using GPL is on the decline:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Adoption
What I wrote was:
While the GPL and its derivatives are the most popular, there's
also the Apache License, Mozilla License, Python's and PHP's
unique licenses, and many others.
Providing a breakdown of specific versions and variants (LGPL, AGPL,
etc.) and timeline trends for each is simply beyond the scope of my
interest. Besides, too many of my posts are already too long; it hardly
seems useful for anyone if I were to err on the side of completeness. ;)
If you have feel GPL v2 is a better fit for LiveCode's goals than GPL v3
I suppose you could email Kevin with the business case for that.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
[email protected] http://www.FourthWorld.com
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