[fpc-devel] LGPL vs BSD

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 8/4/06, Joost van der Sluis <joost at cnoc.nl> wrote:
> This difference is exactly what the gpl makes the gpl. If I have
> developed some code, and give it away for free and some company makes
> some improvements and start earning money with it. At the same time they
> could refuse to give me their improvements, so that I'm stuck. They
> didn't help me to improve my code.. but they can go with my work and
> make their profit...
>
> That's the difference between BSD and the (L)GPL.

I see your point.  I think of it as how each camp can have leverage
over the other.

GPL software needs some type of leverage over commercial software as
they don't have the financial backing (or whatever else).  They do
this by forcing everybody else to publish there changes, which helps
the project along.

Commercial companies feel they need some leverage over GPL software,
as they invested a lot of money and man-power into some project to try
and create a better product the end of the day.  They want some return
on investment. If they had to publish all change, nobody would bother
buying their product, as they could just use the GPL (free) one.

I guess this is what makes the choice of a license so hard!  :-)

Regards,
  Graeme.

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