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I really don't understand the reasoning behind all this. Near as I can think of it, is Darl is working to get the GPL ruled on in a Court of Law. If the rulings are unfavorable, this opens a whole can of worms. Invalidating thousands, if not millions of licensing agreements that have been worked out over the last 10 years or so.
Even worse would be the possible invalidation of the *BSD style license agreements, often thought to be much more restrictive the then GLP for freely distributing code, but more "commercial software friendly" then the GPL.
Invalidation of either, or both these licenses would essentially make only "for profit", restrictive licenses the only remaining option for developers. This would in essence force the re invention of the wheel each and every time someone whats to code a title to do X, Y or Z, even if X, Y or Z was done before by other coders, trapping everyone in a sea of interoperability. Granted that is worse case scenario, and unlikely, as (IIRC) the *BSD licenses have been tested in court. The big question mark is the GPL, as it has never been tested in court.
\"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.\"
-- A.A. Milne \"Winnie-the-Pooh\"
Lance Nichols
The Nichols Collection, now showing.
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