Comrade Jeff wrote:
> This discussion has no impact on anyone who is not a developer. No
> one else is going to make modifications to code, right?

This whole discussion is about the end user.  Developers are merely one link
in the chain for end users to get what they want.  While the license only
directly effects the actions of developers, these actions ripple thru the
system and do effect the end user.  Yes, the end user doesn't care if the
software he is running is open source or not, but he does care about the
variety of software choices available to him and the prices of those
choices.

You ignore this fundamental argument and always come back to explaining how
the license works (we all understand) and that the author has the right to
put any restrictions on his work he sees fit (we all agree).  All my point
is that **if** your aim is to create the best situation for the end users,
then you would not require others to release additions or modifications to
your code.  Doing so makes the code unusable for many commercial endeavors,
and thereby reduces the competition to provide choices to the end user.

Of course you can do what you want with your own code.  But if you're going
to put restrictions on it like requiring some downstream code to be open,
don't pretend you are doing this for the greater good.  You're pushing a
social agenda, which you have every right to do, but that doesn't afford you
some sort of moral high ground.  You're putting a price on your code just
like us capatilist pigs.  In our case we require money in return, in your
case source code, but the principle is the same.

This is why I recommended to the OP to release it with something like my
license.  From the sound of it, it's a pretty useless piece of code to begin
with.  Putting something like the GPL on it would pretty much guarantee it
will never be used, in my opinion.  About the only thing the author can hope
to get in return is his name out there for having created the code in the
remote chance someone will actually use it.  Any restrictions beyond that
makes the "price" so high I'm quite sure nobody would ever "buy" it.

Back to the pig pen.


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