[sword-devel] GPL vs. other licencies

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007, keith preston wrote:

> Speaking of licensing issues, I've always wondered why Sword was licensed
> under the GPL license.

Personally I also like less restrictive licencies. However, I understand
that there are different situations which call different licencies.

If Sword were published under LGPL it would soon be adopted into
freeware and commercial programs. It's highly probable that we wouldn't
get anything from that. It would be useful if they gave back some
code contributions or helped us with module licencing issues, but I
think that would not happen.

Commercial developers already have enough resources without our library.
And if someone wants to code software to spread the Word of God it's
already possible with Free Software. It's even possible to ask donations
and thereby get some money out of the software.

Using GPL is kind of a fair trade: you can use our code, we can use
yours. I don't see why Bible software should be closed source or why we
should help others make closed source Bible software.

Therefore, though I prefer LGPL or even BSD and could have decided to
use them if I had started this project, GPL is enough for me here and
now.

  Yours,
	Eeli Kaikkonen (Mr.), Oulu, Finland
	e-mail: eekaikko at mailx.studentx.oulux.fix (with no x)