Re: bsd license question

["Sancho2k.net Lists" <lists@sancho2k.net>]

Kurt B. Kaiser wrote:
> "Sancho2k.net Lists" <lists@sancho2k.net> writes:
> 
> 
>>Now I write another program, I release it under a BSD license, and
>>someone grabs it up, modifies it, and decides they want to close it up
>>and label it and sell it for $1000 dollars. Is not my original release
>>still available to the public at large, under the original BSD
>>license? Why is it thought that mongers can take the code and rob the
>>rest of it?
> 
> 
> Of course it's still available, and that's a goal of the OpenBSD
> project.  The members want to see as wide use as possible.  The only
> problem is when the development team gets bought out (or the project
> gets forked and dominated by a commercial interest with large
> resources).  It seems that may not be that much of a risk as a
> practical matter: much of the infrastructure is under BSD-like
> licenses and it seems to work great.  Time will tell.

The thing I don't understand is why the GPL stance is that this is a 
terrible and bad thing. This same logic would work against their view of 
freedom; I see the flaw in thinking that "if they have the code, we 
can't have the code too." BSD seems more of "you can have the code, and 
we still have the code, and you make your code into what you want, and 
so do we, and we can go celebrate with a beer later because we all have 
code."

Call it personal preference, but this recent discussion makes me 
understand more the assertions that the GPL produces less freedom that a 
more open, simpler license. I just don't buy into the guise that if the 
big boys buy out, everyone but them suffers.

DS