[Haskell-cafe] Why Not Haskell? (sidenote on licensing)

[Matthias Fischmann]

On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 10:46:16AM +0100, Chris Kuklewicz wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> The GPL only gets in the way if you put it there by choosing to derive work 
> from GPL code.  Note that most commercial programs do not allow you the 
> choice of deriving your work from theirs at all.  The GPL adds to your 
> free-as-in-freedom: you can derive work from others' GPL work and you can 

GPL also brings about restrictions to freedom-in-speech that are
rarely mentioned: Say you develop the code for a client to run her
production facilities.  This code contains sensitive information about
the way the facilities work and must not fall into the hands of the
client's competitors.  But if GPL is stuck to any part of the code and
manages to infect the rest, the client can make you sign as many NDAs
as there can be.  The GPL still entitles you to sell it.  I'm sure
there are other scenarios in which the restritions that GPL places on
the developer are equally prohibitive.

GPL/LGPL is interesting, LGPL v3 may turn into something cool or not.
(I heard they have problems sorting out the above scenario, too, or
something more tricky, I forgot.)  But placing restrictions on how the
code may be used has lead to surprising problems.  BSD on the other
hand is a safe bet.


cheers,
matthias
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