Which licence is best: EPL, GPL or BSD?

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 03 September 2009 07:43

Opinion and Analysis

He also stressed that as far as viewing and modifying code were concerned, the GPL did not in any way differ from the other two licences. The difference kicked in where distribution was concerned - the GPL asked people to share and share alike.

Asay made what could be interpreted as a negative comment about the GPL - that it is a capitalist's dream as one could use it to benefit users (who could use and modify) and bludgeon competitors (who could not modify the code unless they were prepared to share it as well).

Maxwell gave a short history of why licensing was needed and how the BSD licence came about. He pointedly read out the vital bits of the BSD licence to illustrate that it was the simplest of the three, pointing out that while the first version of the GPL had come out in 1991, there were still various opinions about it.

He also raised a point about modern-day business processes - when companies outsourced coding requirements for proprietary enhancements to other companies and received back the code, was that redistribution or not?

The BSD licence, though short and sweet, is something of a free-for-all where people can take code written by one person and lock it away for good under any other licence, provided attribution is given.

The judges were Perl consultant Randal Schwartz, academic and writer Chris Tyler, FOSS researcher Jay Lyman and Ingres product management vice-president Deb Woods. Tyler and Woods gave the debate to Asay while Schwartz picked Maxwell and Lyman thought Milinkovich was the winner.

Hence, the overall winner was Asay and the GPL. The entire debate can be seen here.

What is your opinion, gentle reader? Which licence do you think is best?