GPL and BSD


 * http://slashdot.org/story/99/06/23/1313224/FeatureGPL-vs-BSD


 * http://www.freebsdnews.net/2008/07/18/bsd-license-vs-gpl-license/


 * http://news.slashdot.org/story/08/07/08/1832255/Linguistic-Problems-of-GPL-Advocacy


 * http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=506636+517178+/usr/local/www/db/text/1999/freebsd-hackers/19991003.freebsd-hackers

GPL adovates have missed one of the key points that makes the BSD license do so much good for the world. The BSD license, by allowing people to use its code in commerical products, promotes commercial products following open standards.

The classic example is TCP/IP. There are a lot of commercial products out there using the Berkeley TCP/IP stack, and one of the big reasons for that is that it's cheaper than developing their own protocol stack or even buying one. The value we see from this is the network effect; that a device communicates using the Berkeley TCP/IP stack rather than Novell's IPX stack or Microsoft's networking stack benefits all of us, because we can much more easily communicate with it (even, perhaps, in ways that the author did not intend).

Open standards are even more important to freedom for computer users than open source. (Having source code is nice, but it's not much good if it doesn't permit you to inter operate with other platforms out there. Linux is popular because it talks to other computers.) Therefore, I'd say that the Berkeley license has done more than any other licence to bring us to the state today where we have a lot of freedom in our computing choices. Freedom means the freedom not to share an idea based on derivative ideas. A company is free to tweak the TCP/IP protocol in a commercial product without having to release the derived code, with GPL they would be forced to release any derivation.

GPL advocates seem to think that the idea they GPL'd are exclusivly theirs. There is not a single idea held by anyone that isn't somehow a derivative of another idea by somebody else. GPL adovates expect to be recognized for 'their' ideas, ideas which are most probably somebody else's who didn't seek recognition.

GPL doesn't allow a user the freedom to do with the code whatever he wishes, but like copyright and patents restricts its usage. A restriction isn't freedom, restricting the implementation of ideas leads to Unintended_consequences.

If the TCP/IP was released under GPL it would have prevented Microsoft from adopting it. Forcing Microsoft to use their proprietary protocol by forbidding them to use TCP/IP out of spitefulness could have established the Microsoft networking stack as a de-facto standard like their Office suite is a standard, with catastrophic consequences for society as a whole.

Many GPL advocates are over-estimating their own importance and the importance of the code they contribute. They have an undue desire for recognition on trivialities -

Parkinson's Law of Triviality, also known as bikeshedding or the bicycle shed example. GPL like copyright is a restriction, not a freedom. Freedom means that a person has the right not to share his derived ideas, with GPL he is forced to share his ideas. GPL license is like the restriction on derived ideas we have with HackPatents, patents documents the idea, but doesn't allow its implementation without permission.

GPL allows people with resentments to ensnare the rest of the world with it. They resent Steve Job's and Bill Gates being billionares. In this state of resentment they want to use the GPL for assured mutual destruction, like is happening with with environmental destruction of forests because 2000 idea restricting HackPatents are making patented commercial StirlingEngines unavailable to Africans.

Navy seals demonstrate feats of courage and self-sacrifice, after which they don't appear on the Ophra Winfrey show. Many BSD coders are like Navy seals silently making the world a better place while many GPL coders seek attention for their latest bikeshedding hack. Linux is fragmented over more than 100 distributions, rather focus on making http://www.freebsd.org a better product.