WrongLicense™

People are odd, and they’re odd in different ways. When it comes to computers, some people prefer one language over another (if they’re programmers); some people prefer one application over another. Some people prefer iPads over Androids, and some people prefer piracy over actually paying for software. Some people even prefer Gnome over KDE, or vice versa, and I’m sure that will make Dr Johnson very happy. By far the oddest type of person, however, is the one who centres his entire rational existence around software licenses.

Yes, I hear what you’re saying. How can I build a billion dollar business without the right kind of license? How can my 1970’s editor benefit the world without the right kind of license? Why should I let my evil next-door neighbor steal my work and not give it back, when there are Big Friendly Giants like IBM and Google and Oracle who are happy to play Doctors and Nurses with me?

There’s a simple and direct answer to your question. You are a fucking nut-case.

Here, from the world of VB (and latterly .Net), is Jeff Attwood on licenses.

Life should not be this difficult. I agree that EULAs are a ridiculous extension of legal penis envy. But who really cares about a software license for something that’s unlikely to be used by more than a couple of hundred people or so? And, as IBM and Google and the rest have proved all too well, you can’t force them to give back, even with a lovingly-crafted license backed by the full weightlessness of the ambulance-chasers at the FSF.

Look. Just release the frigging stuff. If you have to, use the Simplified BSD/FreeBSD license. Better still, the WTFPL.

Just don’t piss me around with this “You evil person! You are not using whatever the latest version of the GPL is!” because nobody cares. The only difference between the GPL and toilet paper is that I can’t wipe my backside with the GPL, no matter how hard I try.