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Seeing big companies take advantage of BSD or MIT licensed projects without sharing their contributions will always pain me.
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Taking without giving is always viewed negatively in social settings.
Maybe "taking advantage of" is wrong but then again, it is a dick move anyway.
If I'm putting BSD or MIT license on something, I'm explicitly saying you can use it however you want, you can change it however you want, you don't have to share back, I just ask for credit for my part in it
It's not taking so much as being given freely
Exactly this. I have a couple of small projects that are MIT licensed specifically because I don't care how people use them or what they use them for. If someone finds it useful then they're welcome to do whatever they want with it.
This idea that I'm being somehow hoodwinked or taken advantage of because the thing that I explicitly said could be used freely is being used in a way that doesn't align with the values of some other completely uninvolved third party is beyond absurd.
I've always found it funny that GPL is considered "free as in freedom" but you don't have the freedom to use it in your own way if it's proprietary code.
I think you are missing the point. I am not saying it wasn't. But if you makes a gift for your friend's birthday, and they don't bother at all to return the favor/attention, would you be upset as you would think it is kinda a dick move?
That's kind of a different thing. But no, I would have no issue if I gave someone a gift and they didn't give one back. A gift is a gift, not an loan they didn't ask for.
It isn't about it being a loan. It is about attention, care and respect. That is why I wrote favor/attention. You won't be friends with someone who doesn't in any way show you that they care/respect you.
Edit: just to be very clear, the gift is an example of you expressing care, in my example. It is not necessarily a gift, it could be helping them move, or anything else that expresses some level of care.
You don't expect me to care for you, so you are probably not upset when I don't hold open the door for you when you are 4 steps behind me. But if your friend would do the same (assuming that they know you are there) you could take it negatively.
With software there would be infinite copies of that free item for everyone to get. So the dick move is to sell it to people who are unaware that they could get it for free.