On Thu, 16 Aug 2001, JTK wrote:
>
> Peter Lairo wrote:
>>
>> This is something i have been wondering too.
>>
>> I would hate to have put all this effort into Mozilla and then, when
>> everything is working great, have some copany come up and say: "we're
>> taking this away from you now", or "bgzilla, or whatever structure you
>> are using is no longer available".
>>
>> I'm sure it isn't like that, but some documentation would be nice.
>
> Oh me too. There's probably a very good reason the code is not release
> under the GPL or some other free (not "Open") license.
The MPL _is_ a free software license as defined by the free software
foundation.
> Very good for AOL anyway.
It's not released exclusively under the GPL because, as you presumably
realise, that would make it impossible for AOL to merge the code with
their own proprietary, money-making code, and with the proprietary
code of your favourite topic, the AIM client.
AOL wants to make money, it's a business. If it didn't make money from
the Mozilla source code, it wouldn't be funding its development. The
GPL would prevent it from being able to make money. That's why AOL
doesn't use the GPL, as much as I would like it to.
--
Ian Hickson )\ _. - ._.) fL
Netscape, Standards Compliance QA /. `- ' ( `--'
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