Re:You use more open source software than you think
by sangnoir on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @10:26PM
(#27456036)
> ...you can't use that part freely, but that's kind of the point
The irony is that non-copyleft project author/maintainers want to reserve the right to exploit other people's work when they "grow the project into a business", but bellyache when Amazon "exploit" their permissively-licensed work. Freedom for me -- but not for thee.
Re:You use more open source software than you think
by nicoburns on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:48AM
(#27458453)
IMO extremely large businesses like Amazon cause quite a bit of harm to modern economies/societies. They reduce the diversity of alternatives, and cause a concentration of wealth.
That there is not a good standardised way to give preferential treatment to small companies does not mean it's unreasonable to want to.
Re:You use more open source software than you think
by sangnoir on Friday June 11, 2021 @04:10AM
(#27470548)
"Limiting Amazon's harm" is an honorable to put it - one which I do not agree is necessarily true. My cynical view is that Amazon is rich, and can afford to pay more, so a lot of projects are miffed that Amazon is not aiming a firehose of dollars at them for using code that they granted Amazon a license to use, but "not like that".
Re:You use more open source software than you think
by nicoburns on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:45AM
(#27458438)
> Of course if you accepted external contributions to your code under a copyleft license then you can't use that part freely, but that's kind of the point.
Well yes. But if you:
1. Want to accept external contributions 2. Think you might want to use the entire project (which may still be mostly your own work) in proprietary code in the future.
Then a permissive license is a lot easier than the alternatives.
Of course if you accepted external contributions to your code under a copyleft license then you can't use that part freely, but that's kind of the point.