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Comment by oldmanjay | Hacker News Reader

It is in the interests of a minority of programmers, themselves a tiny minority of the general public. Let's not get completely overblown about the stakes here.

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The only reason I use the GPL is to safeguard the general public's rights to modify and distribute my software. If anything, I'd argue that releasing GPL software works against the author as it makes making money off it substantially more difficult.

The general public still retains the right to modify and distribute your software with a license such as MIT. Your software does not cease to exist once megacorp uses it for a product. The guarantee of GPL is that megacorp is now obligated to share their modifications (but practically, to go find another library or write their own).

You're missing the forest for a single tree. The obligation to redistribute changes under the same license is not the only reason to use the GPL. The license's safeguarding of end-users' right to fix and modify GPLed software is a far more important reason, and is the reason why I and many people like me choose the GPL.

I don't want to restrict developers and corps. After all, I am a developer who wants control over my hard work. However, I also don't want to erode the rights of end-users - of whom I also am. I don't want to end up in a situation where I can't fix a bug in my own software because a corporation wont let me.

It's a trade off. I choose end-users.

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