

Ask HN: Which OS License you try to avoid? And why? - reiz

If you are a developer you have to deal with software libraries and software licenses. Which licenses you try to avoid and why? And which licenses are OK for you if you develop a proprietary product?
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nunobrito
Context is missing, so "it depends" applies.

GPL can be used inside proprietary products, the copyleft clause is only
activated if you distribute the product to other parties. And by distribution
this doesn't mean public distribution, it just means giving the code to the
person who receives the binaries.

On the case of web services, it is rare to see distribution of software.

I could go on writing the whole day about the matter. In the end what wins is
the end-user context. Licenses are like weapons, each one was created for a
specific scenario.

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belorn
Are you in a highly competitive field? If so, any code you can avoid writing
is a competitive advantage, and means you can push out a product faster than
everyone else. In those cases, use, buy, and ask for any code which will
benefit the production and only avoid licenses which directly prevents your
business model from earning revenue.

~~~
reiz
Everybody is an highly competitive field. Everybody wants to release as fast
as possible. That's why everybody is using open source components. I know that
everybody in the commercial field avoids GPL. Just curious which other
licenses are on the blacklist of the some companies.

~~~
belorn
If I take a specific example, a AAA game like starcraft 2 uses something like
10-20 different open source projects, where the licenses are everything from
personal granted permission, mit, to LGPL. I would also guess that some of
those personal granted permission is actually bought permission from dual
licensed GPL projects.

Not everyone are willing to go those lengths to save time and work. Not-
invented-here is still going strong, as is FUD. If you are in a highly
competitive field that can't afford NIH and FUD, then you can't afford a
blacklist either.

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bbrks
MIT, BSD or Apache are fine. I try to avoid GPL as it tends to bring up more
issues than it solves with the derived works clause.

[http://choosealicense.com/licenses](http://choosealicense.com/licenses)

~~~
reiz
Thanks for your input and the link. Any other licenses beside GPL you try to
avoid?

~~~
bbrks
I rarely encounter software that isn't licensed under the big four mentioned
above, so not really nope :)

