undefined | Better HN

0 pointsbrianwawok1y ago0 comments

Do you think this stops the fork? It’s not like they can’t read the code.

0 comments

Well your license is only as good as you are able to enforce it. Even with the law there is no guarantees.

I grew up thinking that people would follow the spirit of open source rather than the specific letter of the law. This is obviously not true, and probably never has been.

udev40961y ago

No license stops someone from spinning off an OSS project into their closed-sourced enterprise offering. It's just sad that most corps see nothing wrong with this

Ajedi321y ago

GPL definitely does.

pabs31y ago

The GPL (and AGPL) are easy to comply with for a corporation, or anyone else really. Just redistribute your modifications under the same license, and ensure users can run modified versions on devices you distribute and you are done.

nordsieck1y ago

> GPL definitely does.

Clearly it doesn't because companies get caught doing it with GPL software all the time.

... and the only recourse is to sue them into compliance.

1 more reply

j451y ago

Still doesn't waste your time.

Large corporations should and can be extremely clear about their intention, which is clear to them before they reach out.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse