NewsForge: Why I Love the GPL

“There are a lot of good reasons to like the GPL: the GNU Public
License. For one thing, it’s a David and Goliath kind of thing.
It’s the little guy standing up to the corporate behemoths that run
rough-shod over our daily lives by virtue of their influence, legal
and otherwise, on government. For another, it’s virtuous. It’s a
Medicare Bill which actually provides more and better health care
for the elderly rather than simply pouring public funds directly
into the greedy, gaping gaws of the pharmaceutical industry. It’s
also territorial. It’s ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ applied to software. The
GPL provides a legal framework for an ever improving, ever free,
software infrastructure. In addition, it’s what Linus chose for
Linux in order that those who follow can have access to his
creation. But what I love about the GPL is the same thing that
Microsoft and other corporate predators hate about it: it
works…”

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