There is a "contradiction" in the GPL inasmuch as it prevents people from restricting the freedom of others. (Just as laws against slavery impinge upon the freedom of slave owners.) Nevertheless, those that desire a freer freedom can pick the BSD license, which permits the software to be incorporated in unfree systems. This is how Microsoft Windows contains TCP/IP code from BSD unix.
Enric wrote: > This may start a whole discussion back and forth. But, I find a > problem with the philosophy and idea behind fully GPL and free > software. As Richard Stallman posits freedom, it's the freedom of > anyone to use software without restriction or barriers. The > contradiction I find is that is that is purely accomplished by > compelling those that create software to release all the code. So > there is a contradiction in the word "freedom" in that it is taking > away freedom of choice from those that create the work. I see the > best result is a wide inclusion of those producing open source and > mixed open and closed source products. That way a wide range of > products and perspectives produce a rich, valuable source of software. > > -- Enric >
