[londons_explore]

But license it GPL, and governments won't use it at all...

[Avamander]

Oh they'll use it, but also ignore the license.

For example: https://github.com/OpenSC/OpenSC/issues/1992

[kapilvt]

In the usa its more like they are free to ignore, licenses are rooted in copyright law aka ownership, per recent Supreme Court Case, states can freely violate copyright... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/supreme-court-ru...

[JoshTriplett]

A few private companies are allergic to GPL; there's no particular reason governments would be.

[vageli]

> A few private companies are allergic to GPL; there's no particular reason governments would be.

Many large, public (as in publicly-traded) companies also have an aversion to GPL. Most enterprises that have a technology review board or legal review of software dependencies (aka any regulated industry) have a dislike for GPL in customer-facing services.

[JoshTriplett]

"private companies" as opposed to "government-run", not as opposed to "publicly traded".

And no, "most" enterprises aren't averse to GPL code for usage. They certainly will have policies about making their own software depend on it, but that's different from simply using it, which was the original topic here.

[vageli]

Gotcha, seems like we just have different definitions of private and using.