Comment The GPL and the Communist Manifesto (Score 3, Insightful) 582
Although the intent behind the GPL is laudable, and the wording of the GPL in its current form achieves this goal reasonably well, it is always a bad idea to have a small cabal of minimally accountable people control such an important lever.
The GPL is a single point of control over the vast majority of the FOSS movement (~60-75% of all projects according to Wikipedia). The wording of the GPL impacts not only the fate of the FOSS movement itself, not only the fate of the work product of each individual participating in this movement, but also the fate of all the companies (large and small) that have chosen to assume the risk of depending on this software.
Given the GPL's extreme importance to such a large and growing audience, we should all take a hard look at who really controls it. The GPL is controlled by the FSF. The FSF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit; it has a board of directors who have responsibility for oversight of the President who runs FSF day-to-day (RMS is the president). The board of directors is elected by "Members" (NOTE: If you join the FSF off their website, you are an Associate Member which is a NON-VOTING position). I'm not sure how one gets to be a full Member.
Now let's not kid each other here: We all know how sketchy the oversight of a Board of Directors can be; we all know that groups of theoretical "equals" can be strongly influenced by a small number of strong personalities; and we all know that "Strong Personality" is a very accurate two word description of RMS (and I doubt Eben Moglen is far behind). I think those among us who are objective (and especially those among us who have personally interacted with RMS) can agree that RMS is on a personal jihad and he's using the force of law to achieve his ends. The question is, do we all want to participate in that same jihad?
Of course, one can respond by saying: "There is a competitive market for licenses - no one is forcing developers to use the GPL." This might be true on paper but it's not true in practice. We're software developers, not lawyers. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of developers release their work under the GPL simply because "that's the one I've heard the most about and that's what everybody else does", and NOT because they researched other available licenses and arrived at an understanding of their implications, and especially an understanding of who controls these licenses.
So where does that leave us? We have a single pseudo-fanatic who has substantial control over the single most important component of our movement. This should scare the shit out of all of you.
Me? I'm going to either change to a non-GPL license or stay with GPLv2.
It's funny how the FOSS movement parallels Russian history: RMS (Lenin) started a revolution to overthrow proprietary software (the Czars). But the new regime became a dictatorship (Communism). It's now time for the proletarians (FOSS developers) to revolt again and achieve self-determination (free, accountable, and transparent democracy).
The GPL is a single point of control over the vast majority of the FOSS movement (~60-75% of all projects according to Wikipedia). The wording of the GPL impacts not only the fate of the FOSS movement itself, not only the fate of the work product of each individual participating in this movement, but also the fate of all the companies (large and small) that have chosen to assume the risk of depending on this software.
Given the GPL's extreme importance to such a large and growing audience, we should all take a hard look at who really controls it. The GPL is controlled by the FSF. The FSF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit; it has a board of directors who have responsibility for oversight of the President who runs FSF day-to-day (RMS is the president). The board of directors is elected by "Members" (NOTE: If you join the FSF off their website, you are an Associate Member which is a NON-VOTING position). I'm not sure how one gets to be a full Member.
Now let's not kid each other here: We all know how sketchy the oversight of a Board of Directors can be; we all know that groups of theoretical "equals" can be strongly influenced by a small number of strong personalities; and we all know that "Strong Personality" is a very accurate two word description of RMS (and I doubt Eben Moglen is far behind). I think those among us who are objective (and especially those among us who have personally interacted with RMS) can agree that RMS is on a personal jihad and he's using the force of law to achieve his ends. The question is, do we all want to participate in that same jihad?
Of course, one can respond by saying: "There is a competitive market for licenses - no one is forcing developers to use the GPL." This might be true on paper but it's not true in practice. We're software developers, not lawyers. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of developers release their work under the GPL simply because "that's the one I've heard the most about and that's what everybody else does", and NOT because they researched other available licenses and arrived at an understanding of their implications, and especially an understanding of who controls these licenses.
So where does that leave us? We have a single pseudo-fanatic who has substantial control over the single most important component of our movement. This should scare the shit out of all of you.
Me? I'm going to either change to a non-GPL license or stay with GPLv2.
It's funny how the FOSS movement parallels Russian history: RMS (Lenin) started a revolution to overthrow proprietary software (the Czars). But the new regime became a dictatorship (Communism). It's now time for the proletarians (FOSS developers) to revolt again and achieve self-determination (free, accountable, and transparent democracy).
