Context:

Permissive licenses (commonly referred to as “cuck licenses”) like the MIT license allow others to modify your software and release it under an unfree license. Copyleft licenses (like the Gnu General Public License) mandate that all derivative works remain free.

Andrew Tanenbaum developed MINIX, a modular operating system kernel. Intel went ahead and used it to build Management Engine, arguably one of the most widespread and invasive pieces of malware in the world, without even as much as telling him. There’s nothing Tanenbaum could do, since the MIT license allows this.

Erik Andersen is one of the developers of Busybox, a minimal implementation of that’s suited for embedded systems. Many companies tried to steal his code and distribute it with their unfree products, but since it’s protected under the GPL, Busybox developers were able to sue them and gain some money in the process.

Interestingly enough, Tanenbaum doesn’t seem to mind what intel did. But there are some examples out there of people regretting releasing their work under a permissive license.

  • rglullisAEnglish
    11·
    6 months ago

    I argue many people don’t care about “software freedom” and MIT is better for those people.

    Which is completely besides the point of the post and carries no value in the conversation.

    P.S: you are still talking about “other people”. Can you try to make any value judgement and own it? How about “I don’t care about software freedom and prefer to get free stuff”?

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
      11·
      6 months ago

      P.S: you are still talking about “other people”. Can you try to make any value judgement and own it? How about “I don’t care about software freedom and prefer to get free stuff”?

      Why? Because your argument has failed beyond redemption so you need something else to impotently insult?

      Which is completely besides the point of the post

      🤡

      • rglullisA
        11·
        6 months ago

        There is no argument, dear child. There is only a value judgement being made by a silly cartoon and you suffering because you refuse to admit that you do not share those values.

        Why you need to resorting to name calling and hiding yourself behind “others” just to avoid facing this uncomfortable truth, I do not know.

        • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
          11·
          6 months ago

          So what is your argument?

          The whole discussion is about how MIT-style licensing is not as effective for software freedom as GPL licenses.

          There is no argument, dear child.

          🤣

          • rglullisA
            11·
            6 months ago

            Fun fact: argument and discussion can be synonyms, but they can also have distinct meanings.

            It’s amusing to see this much projection. You say that I can’t read, then proceed to misunderstand a basic sentence. You say that you don’t respond because you think I will insult you, then resort to name calling.

            Let us find something better to do with our lives, ok? Have a good one.

            • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
              1·
              6 months ago

              Your desperate reply is so predictable I added the quote where you use the specific word “argument” to my comment before you even posted your reply 🤣