Once Again, Reality Trumps Idealism

“Recently a Linux kernel developer tried to relicense an OpenBSD
network driver under the GPL, but was caught early in the process
and the error was properly addressed with public rebuke. In an
unrelated incident, the vice president of the FreeBSD Foundation
reiterated in a statement in his August newsletter that open source
software as originally and traditionally exemplified through BSD
operating systems, and free software as presented by the Free
Software Foundation, are not the same thing. Both OpenBSD Project
and FreeBSD Foundation representatives separately addressed the
same issue: dealing with reality. It’s not an issue for BSD people
though–they’ve been dealing with reality for years. It’s really
more of a problem for GPL supporters.

“‘GPL fans said the great problem we would face is that
companies would take our BSD code, modify it, and not give back.
Nope–the great problem we face is that people would wrap the GPL
around our code, and lock us out in the same way that these
supposed companies would lock us out. Just like the Linux
community, we have many companies giving us code back, all the
time. But once the code is GPL’d, we cannot get it back,’ said
OpenBSD Project leader Theo de Raadt in response to the attempted
unauthorized re-licensing of BSD driver code…”

Complete
Story