[LINK] GPL, BSD, and NetBSD - why the GPL rocketed Linux to success

[Brendan Scott]

Adrian Chadd wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 22, 2006, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> Interesting article on why the GPL has made linux so successful.
> 
> You know, I don't think that has anything to do with it.
> 
> There's plenty of little companies using Linux and GPL software in
> situations where they should be paying for it, but don't.
> This happens quite often with "collaborative" projects with no
> clear copyright ownership, as happens with the GPL.

What is important is the overall effect in practice.  That a handful, or even a lot of small companies don't abide by the rules is neither here nor there in the scheme of things.  In any event, if you are a small company and you're aspiring to be a big company you will need to clean up your act sooner or later.  

> Who would prosecute copyright violations?

To date his name has been Harald Welte.  There is every reason to think many more names will be added in the future.  The fact that the authors don't have the inclination or funds to sue is neither here nor there.  If you were a corporate who found your competitor was not complying with the GPL on their core product would you sue?  Of course you would (all else being equal).  If you know of someone whose nicked squid, why not tell their competitors and see where it goes. 
 
> (I could list a few of these that have occured with the project
> I contribute to, Squid, but it wouldn't get me very far except
> being reasonably angry. :)
> 
> I think it had more to do with the environment and the attitude of
> the people working on Linux vs the BSDs.

David's argument is intuitively obvious to me, and has been expressed to me by others in different variations in the past.  I would be interested in reading any documented counter explanations ("Linus is a great leader" seems to be the only one anyone tries).  Further, in any event, if it is "the people" those people may still be self-selecting ultimately on the characteristics of the licence. 

Brendan