Pluralistic: 20 Oct 2021
When the free software movement started to make headway, proprietary software companies like Microsoft went to war against it, describing the licenses at its core (like the GPL) as "viral licenses" to scare companies off from using free software.
The GPL is a software license that coders add to their work that says, "You can do anything with this – change it, sell it, copy it, incorporate it into something else, BUT…you have to redistribute the new projects under the same terms."
In other words, we are making a software commons – code that anyone can use and improve, but only if they agree to maintain the commons. Like any shared resource, commons need protection from freeloaders who take but do not replenish.
When Microsoft called that a "viral" proposition, they meant that participating in free software meant that they'd be legally required to maintain the commons. Microsoft didn't want a commons – they wanted a private preserve with a big lock on the gate.
But the commons won – Microsoft, and most other tech companies – ended up embracing free software, using it, adhering to the license terms, and contributing back.
