2011/1/5 Kenneth Gonsalves lawgon@thenilgiris.com:
have the land, unless I evict him. But software? Even if someone takes a copy and makes it closed - I still have my copy. So what do I lose?
You perhaps don't lose anything - but consider person A, who takes the software from you - full source code and freedom, and person B, who takes the software from your friend who made it closed - no source code or freedoms. Person B loses out in comparison to person A. Your releasing the software under GPL ensures that both persons A & B get the same deal.
Software is not a commodity that can be bought and sold. Whether I give my software to someone, or sell it - I still have it on my repo, on my hard disk, on forks and on my backup. Why should I worry about it?
It depends on whether you worry about the fate of persons A and B above. If you do, you'll release your code under GPL. If you don't care, you wouldn't. That's all to it.
Binand