David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)

Have a nice life.

That's a perfect open source interaction, in my opinion.

And that license needs to be upheld.

These licenses in general, even the GPL, even if I don't like it, we have to abide by them.

Because if we just set aside those licenses when we, in a moment's notice, feel like something's slightly unfair, we've lost everything.

We've lost the entire framework that allowed open source to prosper and allowed open source to become such an integral part of commerce too.

I mean, back when open source was initially finding its feet,

It was at war with commercial software.

Stallman is at war with commercial software and always has been.

Bill Gates was in return at war with open source for the longest time.

The open source licensees and the clarity that they provide allowed us to end that war.

Today, commercial software and open source software can peacefully coexist.

I make commercial software.

I sell Basecamp.

I sell Hay.

And then I also make a bunch of open source software that I give away for free as gifts.

That can't happen if we start violating these contracts.

No commercial company is going to go, let me base my next project off this piece of open source if I'm also running the liability that some mad maker is going to show up seven years in and demand I give them $50 million.

That's not an environment conducive to commerce, collaboration, or anything else.

And it's just basically wrong.