[arp242]

I have read that. I have read most things I could find on the FSF and GNU websites about this years ago already, and again several weeks ago. And I think that's exactly the kind of casual dismissiveness I'm talking about which barely even recognizes that there are any trade-offs involved at all, much less address them.

[bmn__]

The introductory philosophic essay lays it out very clearly:

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html

> we should perform a cost-benefit analysis on behalf of society as a whole, taking account of individual freedom as well as production of material goods.

You cannot say in good faith that the essays fail to recognise or address the existence of trade-offs. Please take note.

[belorn]

Given that statement, would you be surprised to hear that FSF has multiple time stated that GPL is a strategy with benefits and drawbacks and not an end goal in itself? Similar they see permissive licenses as positive thing, but not the optimal strategy in many cases. It depend on the project, the situation, the authors, the community and so on.