== Open source software licenses matter

I gave in to the temptation of [[some bait from a co-worker on
Twitter https://twitter.com/oclsc/status/951604450925432833]], and
it turns out that the conversation has made me want to say a couple
of things. Today's entry is about the more serious one.

There's a not uncommon attitude among (some) people that other
people are too religiously attached to various open source licenses
and should get over it. So what if you don't like the specific
license some project opted for? It doesn't really matter; don't be
picky and contribute to the project anyway, rather than pointlessly
duplicating work under another license you like better.

(This attitude isn't unique to any particular cultural camp.  You
can find these people anywhere, including on both sides of the
GPL/Linux vs BSD general split with each side saying that the other
should give up its silly insistence on the GPL or the BSD license.)

This attitude is both entitled and quite wrong.

Open source licenses are different from each other, in both
[[philosophies ASoftwareLicensingThought]] and [[communities
SoftwareLicensesAreSocial]]. People who chose to work with one or
another are deliberately choosing to do somewhat different types
of work (generally in their free time). To tell these people that
these things don't matter and that they should live with different
ones is to dictate to them that they should be doing the type of
work you want them to be doing, not the type of work they've chosen
to do.

This is bogus and it's entitlement speaking. We are 'obviously
correct' about what matters, our opinions are better, and other
people should change to follow what we think is important, not what
they've chosen. It's my considered opinion that the most appropriate
reply to a serious expression of this attitude involves [[some
fingers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_finger]], because really,
what other reply is there to someone who believes they get to tell
you what sort of work you'll do in your free time and what should
matter to you? This is not something you debate.

~~The choice of open source license matters because it changes what
sort of work people are doing when they work on a project~~. Some
people don't care exactly what sort of work they're doing, perhaps
as long as it's open source enough (and that's fine). Other people
do care, and these people are not wrong.

As a corollary, laughing at people who are 'so silly' as to care
about which open source license they work with is, well, let me
just call it not a good look and leave it at that.

(Note that this is not the same as the people who think all projects
should obviously be using their favorite license and any projects
that aren't have made a tragic mistake. These people are not right
either, of course.)