AFPL vs. GPL-like licenses?

[Andrew J Bromage]

G'day all.

Robert Feldt wrote:

> What are the implications of using AFPL versus using GPL?

As another said, the key is to determine what your goals are, however I
suspect that you already knew that.  You appear to have implied that
the good will of the community is a possible determining factor, so you
should factor that into your list of goals, and be prepared to bend,
because the community's goals and your goals may be in conflict.

Whatever happens, remember that you always have the option of combining
more than one licence.  For example, if you can't choose between two
licences, you could release under both and give the licensee the choice.
Perhaps the combination of AFPL+QPL, giving your software both liberal
non-commercial distribution terms plus the option of more stringent but
provably Open Source(tm) terms.  Or you could do what Aladdin did and
release new versions under the AFPL and older versions under an Open
Source licence.  Any of these options might carry more favour with the
community than using something which is not OSD compliant.

Then again, you may wish to look at your software and decide who its
intended audience is and what that intended audience would be prepared
to accept.  It's IMO usually perfectly acceptible to ignore those who
would never have used or been affected by your software anyway. :-)

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage