Re: Again: list of advantages of the xGPL

On Fri, 14 Jun 2002 11:20, Greg Alexander wrote:

> [email protected] wrote:
>
> > > 1) Create a good atmosphere of trust on projects. Everyone is
> > > happy sharing because he knows that all modifications will flow
> > > back. No trading takes place which could slow down the project and
> > > generate loss of time and trust.
> >
> > Somehow I have a hard time reconciling this notion that xGPL creates
> > an "atmosphere of trust" when it uses legal leverage to require that
> > all modifications be returned to the community.  If you truly have
> > an atmosphere of trust, shouldn't you be able to trust them to give
> > back without any arm-twisting involved?
> >
> > It sounds more like an atmosphere of mistrust, actually.
>
> "The only person I trust is the one I have at gunpoint."  :)  Since
> everyone has everyone else under contract, we trust the laws and
> government of the land to keep us from being exploited by the other
> parties.  This is how corporate cooperation usually works.  Perhaps it
> really is mistrust, but developers on a GPL project can trust that
> whatever modifications they give to the community will not be used by
> others without the modifications of those others being returned back
> to that community also.  As a result developers can concentrate on
> code development instead of legal wrangling and deciding/bargaining
> about what code to release back, since the terms have already been
> established beforehand.

This only works if you have the bigger gun.  :)  Seriously, if you still
follow the GPL you have to worry that some company may have taken your
code and used it covertly without giving anything back.  At least with a
BSD license, extremely few companies would have to even think about
hiding the code.

In the BSD world, I guess the motto would be:  "don't worry; be a
developer".  As a developer, I do not have to worry about how people are
using the code, did someone fail to give me code, understanding the GPL,
trading code for code nor the motives behind the license I use.  There
is only the code and nothing else to have to concentrate upon, unlike
the GPL.

Sean
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