Re: GPL and LGPL question

[Bruce Perens]

Fred:
> Protecting one's right to  
> share code by removing one's right not to doesn't seem like a Good  
> Thing to me.  

You're not considering the unpaid contributor. If my only choice was
a license like the BSD, I would contribute a lot less. The protective
provisions of the GPL are what make the difference between my putting
in work for the community and my being the unpaid patsy of anyone who
wants to take advantage of my work and not give a thing back to the
public or me. There's no sensible reason for me to be a contributor
to Apple, Netscape, or Red Hat. The reason I do it is because the GPL
guarantees that my work is for the _public_.

Think about how different the world would have been if Mosaic had been
under the GPL.

        Thanks

        Bruce