Other folks have already pointed out that using a library does not constitute a derivative work, so the author's point is irrelevant anyway.
There are times when BSD license and equivalent are sensible choices. Berkeley was releasing a reference set of source code. Their whole point was to have a common platform that everyone was building off of. Similarly, a BSD licensed reference implementation of TCP/IP back in the day meant that everyone could get the protocol up and running much faster with far fewer inconsistencies. BSD licensing is useful for social engineering.
But for most cases this isn't so. Why would anyone who wrote a JavaScript library and gave it away want to make it easy for someone else to build a company around taking their work, extending it a little, selling it, and giving nothing back other than enough tidbits to keep the community (if any) from getting up in arms? This is what happened to the Lisp machines, and it's exactly why the GPL is the way it is. Businesses have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder profits. If you're selling software, that means minimizing costs and maximizing income. It is the legal obligation of a company to take any permissively licensed code it can get its hands on and thinks will speed things up, extend it a little, and sell it. My response: if I'm not trying to engineer your behavior, stop leaching off the community and buy your underlying components.
The GPL exists for a reason. Every so often, some cheap bastard complains about it because he can't make a quick buck by ripping someone else off. Tough. That's why it's there. You want to use my work on this? Give me yours in exchange.
> Businesses have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder profits. If you're selling software, that means minimizing costs and maximizing income. It is the legal obligation of a company to take any permissively licensed code it can get its hands on and thinks will speed things up, extend it a little, and sell it.
This is not true.
First, not every business is a corporation or has shareholders.
Second, fiduciary responsibility does not require maximizing shareholder value (or profits). This has been explained several times here on HN and elsewhere by people who know much more about it than me. Here's one good explanation and discussion:
Excerpt: "...there is no law stating that the purpose of a corporation must be to maximize shareholder return. The corporation’s purpose may be any legal purpose, chosen by the creator and/or the shareholders. There is no requirement of law that profit or the maximization of value or return must be paramount or even on the list of objectives. The overwhelming majority of U.S. corporations have in their articles of incorporation an article stating that the corporation shall have the right to engage in any legal activity."
There are times when BSD license and equivalent are sensible choices. Berkeley was releasing a reference set of source code. Their whole point was to have a common platform that everyone was building off of. Similarly, a BSD licensed reference implementation of TCP/IP back in the day meant that everyone could get the protocol up and running much faster with far fewer inconsistencies. BSD licensing is useful for social engineering.
But for most cases this isn't so. Why would anyone who wrote a JavaScript library and gave it away want to make it easy for someone else to build a company around taking their work, extending it a little, selling it, and giving nothing back other than enough tidbits to keep the community (if any) from getting up in arms? This is what happened to the Lisp machines, and it's exactly why the GPL is the way it is. Businesses have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder profits. If you're selling software, that means minimizing costs and maximizing income. It is the legal obligation of a company to take any permissively licensed code it can get its hands on and thinks will speed things up, extend it a little, and sell it. My response: if I'm not trying to engineer your behavior, stop leaching off the community and buy your underlying components.
The GPL exists for a reason. Every so often, some cheap bastard complains about it because he can't make a quick buck by ripping someone else off. Tough. That's why it's there. You want to use my work on this? Give me yours in exchange.