GPL Revisited (Asbestos underwear activated)

[Chris Gonnerman]

I just read a very informative article regarding the GPL in Open Magazine.
It's on their website also, at:

http://www.openmagazine.net/featured/01/04/18/1529243.shtml

Briefly, the author is Lawrence Rosen, an attorney for the Open Source
Initiative (opensource.org).  While they are supporters of free software
in general they are much more "centrist" than the FSF, hence I tend to
trust his opinion in this matter.

Many people who scream and yell that the GPL is pure evil repeatedly state
that the GPL can "infect" other programmer's code bases against their will.
Lawrence explains how this really works from a lawyer's view, in particular
considering the explicit language of the Copyright Act.

I recommend reading his article; I'm sure most of the anti-GPL people will
still think it's evil, but perhaps there are some whose opinions aren't set
in concrete.  Interesting reading regardless of which side you are on (or
if,
like me, you've moved past taking "sides" on everything).

One thing I find strange is that there seem to be many who are adamantly pro
GPL, and many who are adamantly anti GPL, but there seem to be few like me
who have no strong opinions either way.