Re: [tlug] [OT] Say _no_ to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

> How do you convince developers that giving others the right to close the
> code they took so much time to write is a benefit ?

Because it attracts more users and developers, and the altruistic ones
will outnumber the selfish ones.

When I need a library for a client project typically I only consider
MIT/BSD. If it is GPL I'll need to spend time clearing its use with my
client's lawyers: quicker to write it myself. If it is commercial I'll
need to get budget approved: quicker to write it myself.  (Of course,
large or complex libraries are a different matter; then there are hard
decisions to be made.)

> And I did not declare that use of "liberal-open-source-license code" was
> stealing, it is closing the code and/or not contributing back that is
> stealing.

Most companies are more than happy to get their bug fixes and new
features rolled back into open source projects: it is in their own best
interest. They don't need the strong-arm of GPL to force them. Once a
project is branched and only used internally all the benefits of open
source are lost.

But companies like to have that option. And so they avoid GPL. So GPL
projects miss out on lots of developers and users, and instead the
functionality of that project has to be re-invented.

Darren