Switch to GPL now

Copyright laws are among the most significant in shaping the world as we know it. Copyright laws are not about entertainment, but rather, about thought control.

As a species we are standing on a crossroads never before faced by any species on the planet.

I argue that the single most significant contributor to our supremacy over this planet is our capacity for meme-exchange. We have taken mammalian peer-learning to an unprecedented level. The fact that every member of our species frequently expends great energy in the singular business of meme-aquisition, and that we spend just as much energy in the business of meme-distribution, serves as a testament to its survival-utility and evolutionary effectiveness.

Are we to embrace this freedom, allow the currents of information to flow unrestrained, and see where our exponentially-increasing rate of technological evolution (which, from a more metaphysical perspective, is not so different from our genetic evolution) takes us?

Or are we, on the other hand, going to lock ourselves down and block this flow, all in the name of preserving the economic prosperity of a select few?

Is our future one of wild change and uncertainty, or one of regularity and control?

I agree with everyone else that GPL is not a true free software license. Public domain is that.

Those that think that GPL can actually protect your freedom are mistaken, if someone doesn't want to follow it, they can just do this:

1. Take GPL code
2. Make application to accept some sort of weird custom external interface
3. Make a wrapper for the GPL code which is compatible with said interface.
4. Release wrapper+original gpl'ed code to the public
5. Use/distribute your application as you wish.

This complies to the GPL (and I've seen plenty of companies doing it) and doesn't force them to release any of their code. The only thing they're releasing is a useless(to anyone but them) small wrapper and the original GPL'ed lib(which was available before). The interface is done as a plugin, so the application can work without it, but in reality it's used all the time.

This is how one incorporates GPLed code in his application while still remaining closed source.

The GPL does not protect anything except your original code and is nothing more than a license to lock in people into releasing modified code. Public domain/no licese is superior. The world would be a better place if people realized that licenses are stupid and they should just release the code without being forced by anyone/anything to do it(example: GPL ), alas human nature is a bitch.