[License-discuss] Shortest copyleft licence

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Tzeng, Nigel H. (Nigel.Tzeng at jhuapl.edu):

> 
> On 4/1/15, 1:43 PM, "Rick Moen" <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> 
> >I find that assumption vexing enough that, at one point, I proposed to
> >do a lecture on 'Proven Ways to Use GPLv2 as the Core of a Proprietary
> >Software Business Model'.  (I don't know for sure what the backlash
> >would have been.)
> 
> *cough*MySQL AB*cough*

Among others.  I actually had a whole talk outline covering several
distinct models. 

> Is it odd that the only time I am inclined to use GPL is when I wish to
> protect certain competitive advantages from potential competitors?

That always struck me as a really obvious application.  (And a legal
instrument is what it does.)

To quote Asimov's Mayor Salvor Hardin:  'An atom-blaster is a good
weapon, but it can point both ways.'  (Not the great epigram that
Hardin's 'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent' has become,
but it'll do.)