Non GPL Python MySQL Client Library.

[Paul Rubin]

Paramjit Oberoi <p_s_oberoi at hotmail.com> writes:
> I can't claim to speak for others, but the few contributions that I have
> made to open source software projects have been because the software
> didn't do what I wanted it to do, and I was simply implementing that
> functionality for myself.  The exact license probably doesn't affect
> people with this motivation... we do what we have to do, despite the
> license.

If I can fix my problem with a simple patch, sure, I'll do it and send
it in whatever the license.  If a real fix needs a substantial amount
of development effort, but my immediate requirement can be solved with
some kludgy workaround, I'm more likely to invest the development
effort in the case of a GPL program, but go with the workaround for a
BSD program.  

Also, if I make a substantial improvement to a BSD program, I (or my
managers) now face the temptation of selling the improved version as a
proprietary product rather than contributing the improvement back to
the public distribution.  There are several known cases of someone
inside some company extending a GPL'd program (e.g. retargeting GCC to
a new processor) and being allowed (by company management) to release
the improved version as free software ONLY because the GPL had removed
the option of releasing it as proprietary software.