Wine Developer License Test

[Ove Kaaven]

On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Dan Kegel wrote:

> Ove Kaaven wrote:
> >   4-6: I am somewhat suspicious of my users, so I think the LGPL license
> >        makes it easier to herd them
> 
> How about
>     4-6: I am somewhat suspicious of my competitors, so I think the LGPL license
>          will allow me to release my changes without worrying so much
>          that one of my competitors will use them to leapfrog me.

No. Unless you work at a Wine-based company like CodeWeavers or something
like that, but just contribute to Wine because you want to, you don't have
competitors, just users that may want your work, even if those users are
companies. (And even if you do work at a Wine-based company, then your
competitors *still* become your users if they use your work.) So I think
my description is more accurate for the majority of Wine developers.
Besides, I just wanted to provoke some thought and reflection without the
dull seriousness of a rant. While I do have a license preference (which I
tried to not let bias me when I wrote that message), I won't argue for it
now. Once people stop thinking in black and white and reflect over the
various problems of the matter, they should be able to come to their own
conclusions, which may or may not match mine.