If all Google wanted was GPL- and AGPL-free code, they're quite capable of assigning their own engineers / contractors to work on it rather than the more tortuous route of going via a 3rd party

Their accountants probably prefer this route though. They don't get a competitive advantage by have a proprietary license, so open source is a good choice, but the GPL has issues they want to avoid. By going this route they can use tax breaks that are not available for doing the work in house. Sure it is more complex, but the results matter, and the result they are hoping for is someone else does work that they don't pay for.

Also it's probably cheaper to fund an OS developer for a year than paying for lunch alone for their own engineers.

What kinds of tax breaks are available for the case of using consultants instead of employees?

It isn't consultants it is 501 charities doing the work. The charity hires the consultants.

There are a lot of tricks needed to make the above work, and details that you need to consult a lawyer and accountant for.

> they're quite capable of assigning their own engineers

but if they develop it for internal usage only, then they don't get the added benefit of destroying the existing copylefted version!

Apache and Curl are not GPL or AGPL to start with.

Of course any such endeavor must have a patina of plausible deniability. That's evildoing 101 :)

Sure, but what if the person/team willing to rewrite wants to do so under GPL? Or what happens next when the next project to be rewritten is GPL? I think its fair to keep the original license, but if re-licensing is allowed it should be permissive.

They removed licensing from their FAQ, but I was able to find this issue: https://github.com/ossf/tac/issues/26

I'm also curious if they will accept GPL or not

It will take quite a lot more effort to rewrite something so that the (A)GPL doesn't stick. To do that you would need to rebuild it from its documentation and/or a clean-room reverse engineering, as opposed to a port of the source code.

My semi-conspiracy theory: "safe" languages also make it harder for things like jailbreaks and other defeats of user-hostile "protections", allowing Big Tech to maintain control, so making them popular is very much in their interest. It's like how every utopian vision for society turns into a dystopian one.

"Insecurity is freedom."