Open Source, Free Software, and Public Domain

Rob Park rbpark at ualberta.ca
Wed Dec 10 18:49:44 UTC 2003


T. Ribbrock wrote:
> "freedom of use" - "freedom of the software"

You're absolutely right. The GPL aims to liberate the code, BSD aims to 
liberate the developer.

The GPL imposes restrictions on the use of code, such that no developer 
can steal the code away, close it up, and prevent others from 
benefitting from it. It's very much like a tit-for-tat. People 
developing GPL'd code worked hard, and they don't want to see big 
companies benefitting from it without some kind of reimbursement. That 
reimbursement can be money, or it can be bugfixes. Either way, it makes 
the GPL developers happy, and nobody has lost their freedoms.

BSD, on the other hand, allows companies to steal up the code, close it 
up so nobody can use it, and the BSD developers seem simply happy that 
the companies are using their code instead of writing their own, crappy 
code. Nevermind the fact that they're not being reimbursed in any 
tangible way.

That's how I see it, anyway.





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