Do Open Source Software Licenses Have a Purpose?
Submitted by srlinuxx on Sun, 08/16/2009 - 17:08
Today I'm pondering if the current open source model is still valid or if it's outdated. Do we need licensing for open source software? Do we need the GPL, LGPL, APL and all the other licenses that plague...er, grace us? If your software is free and open source, why bother with a license at all? The software writer owns the copyright so why put users or potential users through the paces of licensing? What exactly is to be gained by creating and enforcing a license for this kind of software?
Currently, there are 64 active licenses listed on the Open Source Initiative's (OSI) website and more are pending approval. 64 licenses is more than just a little ridiculous.
Seriously, you're telling me that the people who keep coming up with license ideas can't use one of the existing ones? The ones who read through the 63 other licenses looked at each other and said, "Nope, these just won't do--we need to come up with our own license."
Take a look at the OSI's Open Source Definition and then ask yourself if you find licensing a necessity or a frivolous exercise:
What's with all the crap
Is there a point in linking to every clueless idiot who have a blog and writes "open source" or "linux" in it's tags.
Yes, Open Source Licenses DO have a purpose!
pwnage.ca: I’ve been reading a lot of articles this weekend. I stumbled upon one called “Do Open Source Licenses Have a Purpose?” which is to be honest a rhetorical question. Ken Hess on Daniweb actually suggests we should throw away our 64 different license CHOICES and just give away our code public domain. I’ve read a similar opinion from other authors and they never suggested getting rid of open source licenses, they suggest trimming them down to a few licenses. While Ken Hess just thinks we shouldn’t keep ownership of anything.
His reasoning is simple and flawed, you’re giving your code away anways – why not release it public domain? Putting a license on it makes it closed and restricted. This is completely wrong, and where does he get this information from? The information he does provide, such as linking the OSI definition and saying “As you read through those ten criteria, would you think that a license is even useful? I personally do not.”.
rest here