"viral" (was RE: Licensing options for firmware)

[Scott Miller]

> > not necessarily a bad thing, but if you don't understand it, it's going
to
> > come back and bite you.
>
> A criticism that can be levied with equal or greater justification at
> most commercial licenses.

Very true.  But with commercial licenses, I always assume the absolute worst
anyway.

As for the 'reciprocal' term, I think what's misleading there is the scale.
As I understand it, if I integrate a 1,000-line GPL'd module into a
500,000-line program, the whole thing must be GPL'd.  To me, 'reciprocal'
would tend to imply a more balanced exchange.  'Viral' also implies
propagation, and 'reciprocal' doesn't.

Again, I'm not against 'viral' licensing per se.  And it's definitely got
negative connotations.  Didn't Microsoft introduce this usage?  If so, I'm
sure that was their intent.  I just think the more politically-correct terms
tend to sugarcoat things a bit.

Scott