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by globular-toast 770 days ago
> Copyleft is not required

Yes it is. Because companies (like Oracle) will take as much as they can and give as little as they can.

> free software is a gift freely given

It's a gift to the public, not to individuals and companies (like Oracle).

> Even public domain is ok

Even worse because that expressly allows companies (like Oracle) to take everything and give nothing.
3 comments
therealpygon 770 days ago
All of which is well understood by anyone who release permissively licensed software?

If they didn’t accept that, they could have used a non-commercial license. If they expected contributions they could have sold a paid product.

I’d suggest not using others hard work as the basis for your argument. If it was your work and you regret it, say that. If you don’t like oracle, say that. Otherwise, people who contribute to FOSS software do so knowingly, yet you are trying to inject your own opinions of “public” vs whomever, as though you know better than those contributors own feelings and intentions.

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lolinder 770 days ago
> Because companies (like Oracle) will take as much as they can and give as little as they can.

Which in the case of free software is a completely neutral fact that causes exactly zero negative impact to the project. You're trying to apply principles of scarcity to a product category that has no scarcity—replicating the bits to serve Oracle doesn't cost a maintainer anything at all.

They can prefer not to let Oracle use their otherwise-freely-provided software, but that's not a position that's as easy to get sympathy for as pretending there's harm done.

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bigstrat2003 770 days ago
> Yes it is. Because companies (like Oracle) will take as much as they can and give as little as they can.

Yes, they will. So? Nobody is actually harmed by this. The software is still perfectly available for the public to make use of.

> It's a gift to the public, not to individuals and companies (like Oracle).

The public is not some separate entity from individuals or companies. It's simply the collective of all individuals and companies. So yes, when you gift something to the public it's a gift to Oracle as well. It's not exclusively to them, but they are a part.

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