That was a good read.
Luke Smith put it more expressively, IMO, with particular noteworthyness in a ubiquitous real world example that that MINIX is actually the most predominant desktop/laptop, and server platform OS in the planet.
Try to do a good thing by using a permissive license and have your work squandered
Also, the AGPL isn’t something that commercial operations are afraid of. There are plenty of examples of industry using AGPL software.
The problem (problems, in reality, are actually just opportunities for solutions) is that scheming “software and appliance” companies wish to close source their products (whether they created them or not) under their proprietary brands. They can, and have, launched litigation against those infringing upon or co-opting their trade and service marks, even patents based on their own products - that sometimes was developed and sold without a single scrap of code authored by them. The only thing a permissive license requires is a Copyright notice, somewhere obscure.
“Ohh yeah, we did include a bit of some open source code” is all they gotta admit to when pressed - they never can be forced to divulge that they didn’t write diddly squat!
Maybe… Just maybe… It’s… Your code.
With respect to the patent, all they need to do is change one little thing about the process in which the existing software worked and patent that. Whole 'nother thing though and I’m not here to teach how to engage in patent trolling, like we did at IBM, lolz.
When they do add to that code, their code is under a completely arbitrarily determined proprietary license, locking down the entire product (written by someone else), as closed source under the terms of a license they decide upon - nothing at all remains of the permissively licensed product… Except that obscure little Copyright notice somewhere.
AGPL merely enforces that anything you add to an initially AGPL licensed work must be made available on demand by the people using your product…
Why would anyone not want that with respect to the software they are trusting their finances, medical records, and privacy to?
I wanna know that the software I use has been vetted by potentially tens of thousands of people much smarter than I, who found nothing wrong with using it.
And that last tidbit, makes them unable to hide anything, so they don’t want to build their proprietary, closed source projects upon it, because they cannot obfuscate the fact that they made nothing at all.
It used to be that the so-called “corporate” software publishing special interests felt the same way about the GPL (they still do, actually), at the same time that Steve Balmer decreed that Linux is Satan, (well, cancer, at least - same difference):
Here’s the rub. FOSS doesn’t care, it has no feelings one way or the other. You use it as is, customize it to your liking, or use something else. It had nothing to gain or lose by you adopting it. So ultimately, it eventually prevails because those who are brave enough to give it away free AND INSURE THAT IT MUST BE MADE FREE TO OTHERS ultimately are the one’s who make it win over the closed source proprietary solutions.
Enterprises have no issues with AGPL’d software -they’re just using it to run their businesses. I’ve worked for a lot of Fortune 500’s and a couple of Fortune 100 companies, never once did anyone ever bat an eye when I selected GPL’d or AGPL’d software for the organization on the point of licensing. I did however receive a lot of blowback because of their low esteem related to supporting their own infra, which is why Debian was such a hard sell, but I could usually convince the choice of CentOS over that of RHEL if we at least had a few machines under a Redhat support agreement (and fur super mission critical stuff, i could usually get a free Slackware or OpenBSD boxes approved).
FOSS doesn’t care at all, but those with the fortitude and courage to Copyleft license their products (if their products are actually good) force the paradigmatic shift in first usage, and then opinion.
I always tell people, “Don’t be a pussy - they need it, therefore they have to use it, choose a license that truly benefits all of mankind.”
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