The great thing about permissive licenses is that it maximizes the utility of the code. I don’t care if someone makes a mountain of money by forking my permissively licensed code, that is in some sense the objective and I lose nothing by it.
This strain of rent-seeking behavior by some that open source their code but then believe they are entitled to compensation or forced contributions if the wrong people use it per license is distasteful and a bad look. It highlights the extent to which for many people the motivations behind their “open source” are not actually, you know, open source. For many, open source is about the utility of the source code and nothing more.
Licenses like AGPLv3 aren’t just about the utility of open source, they try to litigate concepts like fairness and justice at the same time, and open source isn’t a great venue for that.
> I don’t care if someone makes a mountain of money by forking my permissively licensed code, that is in some sense the objective and I lose nothing by it.
What if your code is used to actively make the world worse? Is that part of your goal? There's no shortage of corporations making mountains of money doing exactly that, after all.
I'm sorry, but you are way off base. Use is not restricted by GPL licenses. People have expressed desires to restrict use of GPL code (what if terrorists or pedophiles or Republicans use this code??) and Stallman and it's defenders have not allowed any restrictions of use.
GPL code does not exist in a vacuum. To be maximally useful, GPL code must coexist with source code subject to different legal, regulatory, and licensing regimes. GPL use is only “not restricted” if you completely ignore that compliance with GPL can unavoidably result in civil and criminal liability. Sure, those potential users are not required to avoid civil and criminal liability but that is not a serious argument.
Permissive licenses generally allow source code to coexist within almost any legal scenario into which source code may be placed. This is why I only use permissive licenses both for my own open source and for the open source I use.
I don't think you understand the difference between use and distribution, between running code and copying code.
All source code is automatically copyrighted and restricted (at least in the US) and you must follow copyright laws and license agreements for all source code that you copy and distribute. GPL licensed code is not special in this regard. How you use GPL software has zero restrictions.
I understand just fine. Placing any obligations on distribution, either mandating or prohibiting, is a de facto restriction on use in many contexts. There is a lot of source code that you might want to remix with GPL code that the user has no control over the legality of its distribution. That situation comes up often enough, sometimes in unplanned or unexpected ways, to strongly incentivize the blanket bans on GPL source code you commonly see.
No one has to like it but that is the reality. Pretending these aren’t real and valid concerns, often by people who have no power to change these things even if they want to, does a disservice to the health of the open source ecosystem.
It is why I stopped releasing GPL code and went purely permissive. I’ve seen the issues it causes people who just want to use the code many times. (Ironically, even for me with my own GPL code but at least I can relicense.)
I'm trying to understand you here, but I'm failing. I might need concrete examples of "use" and "distribution" being the same thing if you want to help me out.
This strain of rent-seeking behavior by some that open source their code but then believe they are entitled to compensation or forced contributions if the wrong people use it per license is distasteful and a bad look. It highlights the extent to which for many people the motivations behind their “open source” are not actually, you know, open source. For many, open source is about the utility of the source code and nothing more.
Licenses like AGPLv3 aren’t just about the utility of open source, they try to litigate concepts like fairness and justice at the same time, and open source isn’t a great venue for that.