License Proliferation

[Russell Nelson]

Lawrence Rosen writes:
 > Licenses will survive or fail based upon their merits, the merits of the
 > business plans underlying the licenses, and the merits of the software
 > itself. 

Unfortunately, the middle term is a non-Open-Source-compatible idea.
If a business creates some open source software, it doesn't really
matter what their business plan is.  If they created valuable
software, and needed to put it under some incompatible license, it
doesn't matter if they make money or not.  The whole point behind open
source is to create a commons of software which everyone can use,
reuse, combine, modify, and redistribute.  Incompatible licenses
(e.g. the GPL) don't contribute to this process.  In fact, they impede
it.

Having whacked a hornet's nest, I will now run around a corner so they
don't see me.

-- 
--my blog is at     blog.russnelson.com         | with some experience 
Crynwr sells support for free software  | PGPok |     you know what to do.
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-323-1241       | with more experience
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  |                       |     you know what not to do.