Re: Again: list of advantages of the xGPL

On Mon, 15 Jul 2002, Roland wrote:

> At 01:11 PM 7/15/02 -0400, Deven T. Corzine wrote:
> > > Imagine for a minute that Linux where under the BSDL and Apache, 
> > > FreeBSD where GPLed. I dare to say it wouldn't make much of a 
> > > difference for those projects. Please prove me wrong...
> >
> > I think they would all remain vital and active under either license.
> >
> > Of course, under the GPL, they'd lost the possibility of getting some
> > benefit from the work of proprietary vendors -- so maybe they'd be 
> > better off using the BSD license?
> 
> I think for very active projects you are probably right. But some people 
> may still feel more comfortable with the protection that the GPL gives.

I'm sure that's true, but "warm fuzzies" may not lead people to choose the 
license which is truly optimal for the project.  If the BSD license is more 
optimal for a vital, active project (which it may or may not be), the fact 
that the GPL is more comforting may lure the project leaders into following 
a suboptimal choice of license...

Of course, if a project is that active, they'll probably still reach their 
goal even if the license is suboptimal; it would just take a little longer.

Deven