On 07/21/2010 05:18 AM, justin wrote: > On Tuesday, July 20, 2010, Michael Torrie <[email protected]> wrote: >> The GPL levels the playing field. IBM's contributions can't be used >> against them, as they could be with a BSD license. Linux gets better >> for everyone. > > > I'm not sure I follow. How could IBM's contributions be used against > them under a BSD license?
Simply put, anything IBM did with a BSD project (and where their code was released under the BSD), could be used in a closed, proprietary way in a product that competes with IBM. Whereas with the GPL, IBM's contributions cannot be closed. If a company chooses to make a superior product based on IBM's contributions under the GPL, IBM is free to incorporate their changes as well (it's only fair after all). Level playing field. IBM works with many open source licenses, but I believe that the GPL is one of the reasons IBM chose (at one time anyway) to invest so heavily in Linux. I do not believe IBM would have invested in the same way in BSD Unix. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
