[GRASS5] why GPL

[strobe anarkhos]

>Strobe,
>
>The enforcement of the GRASS code under GPL is the responsibility
>of my university ultimately.  Markus and I decided GPL would be the
>best for the community.  This has allowed us to protect everyone
>developing within GRASS (which our legal team here has already
>had to do from a commercial interest which shall remain nameless).
>Everyone (especially our counsel's office) know's of the inherent
>strengths and weaknesses of GPL, but it is in the best interest of
>everyone to use it as the standard.


Like I said in a recent post on this thread the only difference between LGPL and GPL isn't protection (which Eric has already stated), its "reciprocity" as he put it. In other words assurance that people will contribute to GRASS in the future.

MY argument is this reorganization will give people MORE incentives to contribute to GRASS. As I read it, LGPL prohibits people from taking code out of GRASS and using it willy nilly like making their own LGPL library. If it doesn't we can add that restriction easily.

If we can agree that this isn't about 'protection' I think that would be a good first step. At least Eric and I are on the same page here.

To paraphrase the issue simplistically, the issue here is if GRASS could become a general framework used by any application roughly dealing with maps and thus give many more people the incentive to improve GRASS with their own contributions.

Currently there is no framework like this, free OR commercial. Commercially it's not viable because the big companies prefer monolithic applications where people write specific tools for. However it is viable as a generally available framework that no specific company owns the rights to.

I can accept if this isn't going to happen, but I'd like there to be some valid logic following that decision instead of statements like "but it is in the best interest of everyone to use it as the standard." Many libraries have had success with the LGPL license, I think that proves something. 


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