Picking a license

[Ed Keith]

--- On Fri, 5/14/10, Paul Boddie <paul at boddie.org.uk> wrote:

> From: Paul Boddie <paul at boddie.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: Picking a license
> To: python-list at python.org
> Date: Friday, May 14, 2010, 8:12 PM
> On 14 Mai, 21:18, Ed Keith <e_... at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > The GPL is fine when all parties concern understand
> what source code is
> > and what to do with it. But when you add people like
> my father to the loop
> > if gets very ugly very fast.
> 
> Sure, and when I'm not otherwise being accused of pushing
> one
> apparently rather unpopular man's agenda, I am interested
> in knowing
> what the best practices should be and how they can be
> followed more
> widely.
> 
> Although Bill Gates once apparently claimed that no-one
> needs the
> source code for their word processor or office suite, there
> are still
> benefits in people like your father having access to the
> sources, even
> if this obviously means that he isn't going to recompile it
> himself:
> he can get others to fix things, particularly if his
> favourite version
> is no longer widely supported; if you were from a part of
> the planet
> where you were comfortable with a widely-spoken "global"
> language but
> your father could only converse in a less widely-spoken
> "minority"
> language not generally supported by such software, someone
> (perhaps
> you) could undertake the task of translating that
> software.
> 
> Whether or not one is comfortable with copyleft-style
> licences, there
> clearly is a benefit in providing access to software
> governed by those
> licences. Being able to do so responsibly is obviously a
> prerequisite
> to feeling comfortable about it.
> 
> Paul
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> 

But if I license my software with a less restrictive license, like MIT, Boost or Apache, programmers can access the source code, and people like my father can give the executable to their friends without violating the law. IMHO that is better for everybody.

   -EdK

Ed Keith
e_d_k at yahoo.com

Blog: edkeith.blogspot.com