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0 pointskube-system2mo ago0 comments

The above claim was in fact regarding “intellectual property”. If you break it down, there are plenty of IP rights which make a lot of sense.

Here’s one for copyright:

“Do you think any corporation should be allowed to make closed source forks of GPL software?”

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5 comments · 1 top-level

senko2mo ago· 4 in thread

If there’s no copyright, there’s no closed source. You get their code, decompile/disassemble and reuse as you see fit.

You might argue that doesn't help much if they never distribute that code (only runs on their servers). Here’s the inconvenient truth: GPL already allows that. Anyone can take a GPL codebase, do any modifications they want, run it forever, and never contribute back. You’d need AGPL to forbid that. GPL is only concerned if you further distribute the modifications.

Next one?

kube-systemOP2mo ago

A lack of copyright does not mean secrets cannot exist. In fact, it would heavily incentivize it.

> Anyone can take a GPL codebase, do any modifications they want, run it forever, and never contribute back.

Only privately or over a network, but it prohibits distribution of binaries without source. This is the primary reason the GPL exists.

senko2mo ago

And how does that exactly stop Amazon, Google or Microsoft (heh) from running GPLd software in their data centers and raking in money for hosting products built by poor open source devs?

I'm not worried about Microsoft recompiling bash and redistributing it. Is that a realistic problem for you?

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lamonade2mo ago

Here’s the convenient truth: GPL doesnt allow distributing the binary without distributing the code. Next one?

senko2mo ago

Awesome. If you think that is stopping anyone, here's a challenge for you:

GNU Bash is GPL. You can run Bash (and many other Linux commands) in Windows through Windows Subsystem for Linux. In fact, WSL is a nice example of Microsoft doing embrace & extend.

The challenge: find the Microsoft's published code for Bash.

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