On Sat, 2003-11-22 at 16:19, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: > No, it's the FUD that the GPL is 'viral' and therefore must > be avoided in business environments.
No. Read my paper. > It is very well possible > to combine GPL-licensed software with proprietary applications. > You just have to make the right architectural decisions. Sure. But there is still a big class of cases where the GPL's viral nature imposes itself. The original poster's problem was situated there, I believe. There is a great range of "business environments": some deal well with GPL, some don't. Dual licensing is a great way to explore the viral nature of GPL. When I say 'viral' I do so without any prejudice whatsoever. My own organization's flagship license Conditions of Use of SDC Artifacts has also viral elements, namely item 18: "The modified artifact is still an SDC artifact subject to the current Conditions of Use of SDC Artifacts." (www.softdevelcoop.org) ***And I really resent being called a FUDer.*** GPL's viral nature is right there on clause 2b for everyone to see: "You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License." It's clear how this can be a problem to a lot of businesses, and experience (even in this list) shows beyond doubt that it really is a problem to many real businesses. -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
