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bea wrote

I have run across this before, when companies have told me that they hate the GPL because they are not keen on spending a lot of time, energy, and money modifying some piece of code, only to be required to give it to their competitors for free.

That's the fucking point of copyleft. When some people spend a lot of time and energy making something why not share it so others don't have to spend their time and energy?

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pho4cexa wrote

It's so myopic too.

only to be required to give it to their competitors for free.

The analysis ends there, and doesn't touch on

  • the likelihood that those competitors (who are also irrationally allergic to copyleft) would actually use the code, or
  • the positive business consequences of those competitors also having to share their changes back if they do use it.

I think if companies (and their lawyers) would spend a second longer thinking about copyleft they'd see it can actually be good for business -- it becomes a way to collaborate on stuff that might not be a "core competency" (code) when the whole economic system and market insists they must compete in all things.

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