> I think BSD (permissive for developers, maybe restrictive for users) vs. GPL (restrictive for developers, permissive for users) is very similar to the Paradox of Tolerance in a way.
It very much boils down to tolerance, yeah. I've made the experience that in the communities where permissive licenses are common, there is much larger tolerance for proprietary software and services than in communities that revolve around GPL. I personally don't care much about GPL vs permissive per se, but I do care about the four freedoms and see copyleft as neccessary evil that's needed in some instances to prevent proprietary takeovers.
The GPL is not self-serving; it is a tool to achieve a type of society, and that is the society you seem to enjoy, too. After all, by what else should be measure the permissive licences vs copyleft licences if not by their influence on society?
Are you one of those "GPL is socialism" people? You are misguided. Yes, there are lots of marxists/communists in the open source / free software community and most people in it lean left.
But the GPL itself is compatible with a capitalist society. In fact, GPL can be the basis for making money with FLOSS software, by offering non-GPL'd commercial licenses. All the GPL ensures that if you want to make a proprietary fork of the software, its original author has to be made part of the equation. Some people see it as a tool to achieve communism and I think they are misguided in the view that the goal is desireable. The open source software they create is nevertheless a valuable and worthy contribution to mankind. You can't just reject someone's work because of idiotic ideology. As long as they share this view and allow me to have a productive working relationship with them on the open source component, I'm fine.
No, not all. I don't even know why you'd assume so. I don't even see how you connect what I've said remotely to the left-right oversimplification of political opinions, let alone with one of those sides.
In my comment I was talking about communities and you replied with a comment about types of societies. For me a community is focused to one thing like idk a specific game or fan community of a book author, while a society encompasses all aspects of life for its members. So for me, a "type of society" is about a general way of living together, be it capitalism, feudalism, socialism, etc. I've thought you meant that but apparently you haven't so my comment doesn't apply to you, sorry :)
I would argue if you had to paint the GPL with a particular brush it would either be anarchist or possibly (modern) Marxist. Neither are necessarily incompatible with capitalism (in the "free market" sense at least, they are incompatible in the Marxist sense of "employer/employee dichotomy").
The idea is that the GPL empowers users to modify and distribute software rather than enforcing a particular structure of developers and users.
Of course the GPL is not a system of government, so these comparisons are mostly "in spirit". In reality, it's a clever hack to give power to users by abusing the capitalist copyright system (which has historically morphed into a tool for corporations to oppress users).
But the GPL is definitely not communist nor socialist because it has no relationship to government intervention at all (other than relying on copyright laws for its strength). Marx had no interest in governments.
The above commenter may not be, but the author of the article very much seems to think that gpl is exclusively socialist. As a non socialist myself and a gpl fan, I hope people will see that gpl is perfectly valid in a non socialist context, as well.
It very much boils down to tolerance, yeah. I've made the experience that in the communities where permissive licenses are common, there is much larger tolerance for proprietary software and services than in communities that revolve around GPL. I personally don't care much about GPL vs permissive per se, but I do care about the four freedoms and see copyleft as neccessary evil that's needed in some instances to prevent proprietary takeovers.