Re: The sad decline of copyleft software licenses? :(

[Pen-Yuan Hsing]

I'm afraid I have to agree with Marinus on this point.

Interesting idea to `grep` the licenses on a Debian VPS system, but I 
think they represent a particular subset of software, many of which have 
been core components of GNU/Linux for a long time, when copyleft 
licenses likely had a larger following. Like Marinus said, and to the 
best of my knowledge, a big majority of new software published on 
platforms such as GitLab or GitHub uses permissive licenses with MIT 
being one of the most popular. I distinctly remember a graph published, 
probably by GitHub, or the proportion of different licenses used and the 
graph shows this trend. (sorry I can't find the original graph right now)

Also, of the GNU/Linux distributions, Debian (while not 100% free 
software according to the FSF) is a relatively strong advocate of 
software freedom, and more likely to include more 
GPL'ed/copyleft-licensed software.

On 9/23/20 6:24 PM, Marinus Savoritias wrote:
> If you think there is more and more GPL license I hope you never got to 
> Github or Gitlab. There is a huge surprise coming your way.
>
> Marinus Savoritias
>
> On 9/23/20 12:14 AM, Jean Louis wrote:
> > * Marinus Savoritias <marinus.savoritias@disroot.org> [2020-09-23 00:42]:
> > > The problem is though that if somebody wants to write a program he 
> > > doesn't
> > > want to have meetings with lawyers first. He just wants to write a 
> > > program.
> > > By making it harder for people to start writing a program you end up 
> > > in a
> > > situation where nobody uses your license. And then you have the title 
> > > of the
> > > original email. Which seems to come true if GPL is as hard as you
> > > say it is.
> >
> > As I continually use mostly the GNU GPL licensed software, I do not
> > see it that way that one ends up in situation where nobody uses your
> > license, as there are no specific statistics about it -- and my
> > personal opinion is that now there is more than ever GNU GPL licensed
> > software.
> >
> > If company wish to produce program, they do consult a lawyer. If
> > single person wish to program, that one will usually learn about
> > licensing and will decide about it.
> >
> > So let me give you example from one of my Debian VPS servers:
> >
> > - I did not verify all packages, as I do not know the method. I know
> >    that most of Debian packages hold documentation in /usr/share/doc,
> >    so I keep there documentation for 1493 packages.
> >
> > admin@server:/usr/share/doc$ find . -name copyright -exec grep -l "The 
> > Regents of the University" {} \;|wc
> > grep: ./python3-debian/examples/copyright: Is a directory
> >      159     159    3784
> >
> > So I got 159 results for The Regents, I guess it is permissive
> > license. It is not accurate.
> >
> > find . -name copyright -exec grep -l "Free Software Foundation" {} \;|wc
> > grep: ./python3-debian/examples/copyright: Is a directory
> >      905     905   23657
> >
> > So I have got about 905 results for GPL licenses.
> >
> > I guess that results are not accurate. 429 other files could be as
> > well different licenses.
> >
> > At my server there is majority of GNU GPL licensed software. That is
> > one particular and specific statistic.
> >
> > That is why I cannot agree with it that nobody uses the licenses, GNU
> > GPL is most popular license and there is more and more GNU GPL
> > software.
> >
> > Jean