copyleft-wiki/users/datagrok.mdwn

**datagrok** is Michael F. Lamb. I'm a fan of copyleft and the Free Software Foundation. My personal homepage is [datagrok.org][datagrok.org].

Items I would like to see in this wiki or The Guide (and intend to help contribute, if deemed useful):

- **AGPL Is Business-Friendly.** An unfortunately popular misconception in many "open source"-tolerant businesses that "permissive is better and viral is dangerous." I intend to demonstrate using specific examples that contrary to popular belief, in *many* situations, copyleft licenses like AGPL and GPL are *better* for business than permissive or proprietary licenses, even when one ignores its ethical advantages.
- **Free Software Licenses, By Example.** A collection of specific hypothetical situations, and which license is best to achieve one's goals in those situations.
- **The differences between the AGPLv3 and the GPLv3.** The AGPLv3 and the GPLv3 are both fairly dense legal documents. But the AGPLv3 is almost entirely a verbatim copy of the GPLv3, so it is easy to understand the AGPLv3 as the GPLv3, plus a small patch. Provide a visual `diff` that highlights the areas where they differ, and explain why.
- **Permissive is the New Proprietary.** The philosophy section on gnu.org is quite charitable toward permissive licenses, including many permissive licenses under the definition of Free Software. However, with the advent of software as a service, or services as a software substitute, and the rise of the Open Source movement, permissive licenses allow startups to build on Free Software without contributing back. It's no surprise that a large amount of vitriolic attacks against copyleft may be encountered on startup-focused discussion boards. Expand the situation and respond to the most frequently encountered FUD.
- **Copyleft is better than Permissive for Social Justice.** Ashe Dryden describes in [The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community][dryden-ethics] (2013) how employers measuring prospective employees by their participation in open source can be an unfair to many, especially marginalized people in tech. While it does not completely solve the problems, a copyleft license would prevent at least some of the abuses she mentions, that a permissive license (and the culture of businesses not sharing-alike) allows.

[datagrok.org]: http://datagrok.org
[dryden-ethics]: http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-community
Introduction and planned contributions 2015-05-09 01:17:37 +00:00			`datagrok is Michael F. Lamb. I'm a fan of copyleft and the Free Software Foundation. My personal homepage is [datagrok.org][datagrok.org].`

			`Items I would like to see in this wiki or The Guide (and intend to help contribute, if deemed useful):`

			`- AGPL Is Business-Friendly. An unfortunately popular misconception in many "open source"-tolerant businesses that "permissive is better and viral is dangerous." I intend to demonstrate using specific examples that contrary to popular belief, in many situations, copyleft licenses like AGPL and GPL are better for business than permissive or proprietary licenses, even when one ignores its ethical advantages.`
			`- Free Software Licenses, By Example. A collection of specific hypothetical situations, and which license is best to achieve one's goals in those situations.`
			- The differences between the AGPLv3 and the GPLv3. The AGPLv3 and the GPLv3 are both fairly dense legal documents. But the AGPLv3 is almost entirely a verbatim copy of the GPLv3, so it is easy to understand the AGPLv3 as the GPLv3, plus a small patch. Provide a visual `diff` that highlights the areas where they differ, and explain why.
			- Permissive is the New Proprietary. The philosophy section on gnu.org is quite charitable toward permissive licenses, including many permissive licenses under the definition of Free Software. However, with the advent of software as a service, or services as a software substitute, and the rise of the Open Source movement, permissive licenses allow startups to build on Free Software without contributing back. It's no surprise that a large amount of vitriolic attacks against copyleft may be encountered on startup-focused discussion boards. Expand the situation and respond to the most frequently encountered FUD.
			- Copyleft is better than Permissive for Social Justice. Ashe Dryden describes in [The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community][dryden-ethics] (2013) how employers measuring prospective employees by their participation in open source can be an unfair to many, especially marginalized people in tech. While it does not completely solve the problems, a copyleft license would prevent at least some of the abuses she mentions, that a permissive license (and the culture of businesses not sharing-alike) allows.

			`[datagrok.org]: http://datagrok.org`
			`[dryden-ethics]: http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-community`