GPL as an evaluation license

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 03:25:46PM +0300, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 2:26 PM, Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir at cohens.org.il>wrote:
> 
> >
> > > IMHO in most of these cases the GPL license will be a deterrence
> > > from even trying the thing.
> >
> > But this is when the GPL is used in production. Not for evaluation.
> >
> 
> I think this last statement is wrong. On top of the "distribution" problem
> IP-conscious companies also worry about "contamination". So GPL as an
> evaluation license carries this additional concern. Overall, I'd say GPL has
> a larger "chilling factor" than a decent (and short) proprietary license.

The GPL (even V3) is shorter than most propritary licenses I've seen.

Contamination is a potential issue with any other code.

Suppose you got some code from Oracle under the terms of the OLLE
(Oracle License for Library Evaluation), played with it a bit, and figured
it is junk you shouldn't use.  You team went on to use your own code
instead.

A year later Oracle sues your company (over an unrelated issue).  Both
the Oracle lawyers and your company's lawyers look for problematic
spots.

So, have you been contamination with Oracle-copyrighted code? Are you
licensed to use it?

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