The GPL benefits the original copyright holder the most becuase they have
total control over the licensing. The copyright holder can change the license
at any time and even dual license the code with the GPL and their own
commercial license if they wanted to make code proprietary if needed.
That copyright holder can use the commerical license to their advantage if
they choose to use the commercial license instead of the GPL to bundle custom
and/or proprietary code with the project and give it to a client or another
company. The non copyright holding user of the GPL code has to be bound to
the terms of the GPL and cannot change the license or make proprietary code
with it. This applies if they fork the code as well.
That is why many companies choose to go with a permissive license. They can
take open code and do whatever they want with it and not be bound to the
terms of the original copyright holder if the original copyright holder
chooses to change their terms, licensing or bully them around.
That is why some say the GPL is the most profitiable of the free software
licenses. Profit for the original copyright holder compared to the profit of
the user who adapts it.
