Whither the GPL? Why we don?t need it anymore

"But today, open-source software is much more familiar, and tech companies generally understand how the model works, if not always when to open their own software. So the initial mission served by the GPL of force-feeding open-source development isn?t as necessary as it once was, at least among educated tech companies.

I suspect the lifecycle has now shifted. Although tech companies get it, the next step will be non-tech companies such as retailers, investment banks, etc. Maybe the GPL is the right choice for them as a teaching tool, followed in a few years by a migration toward permissively licensed software once the benefits are understood.

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