In defense of proprietary dual licensing with copyleft.
I want to live in a world where proprietary licensing doesn’t exist, so I will not be
defending the that, instead I will focus on the benefit to free software.
Proprietary software when published under a copyleft license such as GPL, is in fact
published as free software which can be used by free software projects. Being banned from
using a copyleft license, either will push towards the proliferation of copyleft licenses
that aren’t and probably couldn’t be compatible with at least the license that they have
been banned from; or will drive this dual licensing scheme out of business and proprietary
software will continue being proprietary without the free option, in which case the loss
is to free software.
Forcing proprietary software vendors to stop offering a free version licensed under
copyleft, is akin to forcing service providers such as
github.com to cease providing free
services for free software projects; because the motivation behind the business model is
similar; free for open source, and paid for commercial.
I my conclusion, I do not find being hostile to the proprietary world - by banning them
from using copyleft as a dual licensing scheme - actually beneficial to the cause of the
free software movement, nor do I find it a necessity.