Why I Don't Use The GPL
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The document outlines reasons for preferring the Apache License 2.0 over the GPL, emphasizing the freedom it offers in sharing, copying, and commercial use without the requirement to license the entire work. It highlights the challenges in finding source code and the importance of ensuring long-term code availability through foundations. Ultimately, the author values a more permissive approach that allows for greater flexibility in how code can be used and integrated.
Why I Don't Use The GPL
- 1. Why I Don’t Use The GPL @shanecurcuru 1 Licensed under the Apache License, 2.0
- 3. Copy 3 Left
- 4. You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. 4 Freedom for Code
- 5. GPL == Telling Others How They Can Work 5
- 7. I want to use my license for my work 7 Why can’t we play together?
- 9. Redistribution 9 Sharing Copying Selling Conveying Publishing ...Finding The Source Code Used To Be Hard!
- 16. 16
- 17. 17 Foundations ensure long- term code availability
- 20. Thank You @shanecurcuru Made on: Keynote Displayed in: PowerPoint License: Apache License, v2.0 All trademarks property of their respective owners 20 Kittens: Tokaji and Pálinka, 6 months old @shanecurcuru/Apache 2.0
Editor's Notes
- #2: Hi - my name is Shane Curcuru, and I don’t use the GPL. I use permissive licenses instead of the GPL for my code, and even when I’m looking for a new job in open source. I bet permissive licenses are a better bet for you too. “Heretic!” I hear the cry.
- #3: But Look - kittens! You wouldn’t throw tomatoes at kittens, would you? Now my picture is under the permissive Apache license - no strings attached! Today, the GPL has too many strings attached for the modern software world.
- #4: The problem is copyleft - or viral licensing. Copyleft is a fundamental part of the GPL and it compels you to share any changes you make to GPL licensed code under the GPL itself.
- #5: Whenever you modify and redistribute GPL software, you are required to license the whole product - including all of your new work that changes the GPL code - under the GPL, and you must provide a full copy of the source code - including your work - to anyone who asks in the future.
- #6: Once you start using the GPL, it’s kind of like a cell phone plan - one that you can never leave. Even if you move, or get a new job, you’re still stuck on the GPL plan, always using the same phone and always providing your phone number to anyone who asks for that project.
- #7: Think of kids learning to play marbles: everyone has different color marbles, aggies or cat’s eyes, or whatever their favorite are. If you want to include everyone in the game, you need to be flexible enough to allow some variation in what kind of marbles someone else brings to the game.
- #8: Now I will I comply with the GPL when I use your GPL software. But I want the freedom to choose my own license for my own new work - and that means I can’t really play with GPL licensed code very often.
- #9: Now, I agree the GPL was critical to the early growth of open source - in the beginning the GPL protected the integrity of open-source projects from corporate predators, and helped to educate and inform the industry how software licenses really worked.
- #10: In the early days, it was hard to share your knowledge. Before subversion and github, it was hard to find the source, even for popular programs. Back then, the GPL kept the source code freely available, and ensured that corporations couldn’t lock up the code later after it was released.
- #11: All too often companies try to lock-in end users to their product without sharing any work. Before a widespread understanding of how open source licenses worked, it was the GPL that had the teeth to enforce the license, and kept the source code available, which was great.
- #12: But like any belief system that demands that everyone act the same way it’s really hard for most people to accept. Today in open source, we have a huge array of choices of software projects out there, - and it’s easier than ever to start your own new open source project yourself.
- #13: Analysts note that more new projects today are using permissive licenses rather than copyleft. It’s clear trend across communities and technologies. Now that open source methods are mainstream, and we all understand how licensing affects our work, more and more people are leaving the confines of GPL behind.
- #14: Permissive licenses don’t just make it easier to share technology, they also allow many different business models for building software. In real life, we all need to make a living. The constraints of the GPL prevent many business models from being profitable - meaning fewer people and companies are interested in sharing with you.
- #15: Life is sharing. With the growth of open collaboration not just in software but in other industries, using a permissive license encourages a far wider variety of contributors to your project. When I share, I want to share with everyone.
- #16: Another reason that the GPL is not as important today, is the Rise Of The Foundations. Open source is in vogue - not just the code, but the people, the processes, and the governance. Now that everyone wants to share their work, these foundations are growing rapidly.
- #17: Groups like Apache, the Free Software Foundation, Eclipse, and many more - are now well respected and highly sought after stewards of hundreds of top tier software projects. As non-profits, these groups have a vested interest in attracting as many new diverse contributors as possible, and in providing a stable home for their communities.
- #18: Today, these foundations now act as the stewards for the source code and their communities. Rather than relying on just the GPL license to keep the code free, the independent governance of these foundations ensures their code will remain freely available no matter what license they are using.
- #19: Now, I see a clear theme in many of the talks today here at OSCON Ignite. Empathy. Drawing in new contributors; helping out the newbies with better READMEs. Building teams of Willie Nelsons who work together, not lone rockstars. It’s not about making the code work together, it’s about helping people work together.
- #20: The GPL is fundamentally about freedom and protection for code. Personally, I’m far more interested in promoting freedom for people - freedom to use the code we share however you want.
- #21: Hi, I’m Shane, and I don’t use the GPL - I use the permissive Apache license. Because when I share something, I want you to have the freedom to choose how you will build something great on top of my code. Thank you.