[OSGeo-Discuss] Thematic Mapping Engine as Open Source?

[Lester Caine]

Chris Puttick wrote:
> ----- "Lester Caine" <lester at lsces.co.uk> wrote:
>> Christopher Schmidt wrote:
>>> On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 05:40:41PM +0200, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
>>>> Bjorn Sandvik ha scritto:
>>>>
>>>>> I'll consider the pros and cons between different licenses. I
>> don't have
>>>>> commercial interests,
>>>>> but I would like the project to be sustainable.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've changed my mind about using SourceForge, - I agree that
>> Google Code
>>>>> is more suitable.
>>>> Please note:
>>>> - GPL is more widely used
>>> Than what?
>>>
>>> In any case, GPL is designed to prevent use of the software in a
>>> specific set of contexts. I maintain my position that for
>> Javascript
>>> Libraries, the GPL is confusing at best, and tends to hurt uptake of
>>> an open source project, in my experience. (ExtJS is a strong
>> counter
>>> example of a JS library which is GPL licensed -- but they are not
>> an
>>> open source project, just open source code.) 
>>>
>>> The GPL is a fine license for many things, I just think that open
>> souce
>>> Javascript Libraries isn't among them.
>> GPL is appropriate if you do not want other people to make money out
>> of your 
>> effort. LGPL may be more appropriate for Libraries but only after
>> reading 
>> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html
>>
> Surely you mean people not making money out of selling your efforts without making a contribution back? Plenty of people make money from selling services around GPL software without breaching the licence and I don't think many of those developing GPL software begrudge that.

No I was referring to instances where commercial companies take source code 
and data and market it as their own work. There are a few examples where open 
source data has been 'stolen' legally and the courts have upheld no wrong 
doing, so some licence with a few teeth is appropriate ;)

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/lsces/wiki/?page=contact
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk
EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/
Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk//
Firebird - http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php