doesn’t really protect your code though, corpos can clone it into a slightly different version automatically

They will definitely do it. This isn't about the technical side of the issue, but the legal one. They won't take your actual code because they won't want to deal with the GPL. Of course, they'll simply reproduce the functionality they need using AI. That way, the GPL will shield your project from corporate exploitation.

yep

💯 claude literally spit this out yesterday. as a joke, of course: "Make it look like Apple but legally distinct" is a valid component spec now.

now consider corpos and their ip. how many are feeding their ip to one of 3 companies? how many understand the implications of feeding their ip into the training corpus of models? you think they’re sophisticated enough to prevent employees from using these public tools?

I can think of 10 different ways to monetize everything you got but everyone just ignores my business hat 🙄 since forever. i'll shut up now

They can't clone the love the went into the code, and they can't clone the existing network effect

You can either create a derivative or something very sloppy. We don't have a legal non-GPL Blender alternative, with the same level of functionality, and as good as it, do we? Blender uses the GPL so that it stays free and open source software. Copyright is owned by contributors and this reassures everyone that the program will stay free. Of course, you may point out the Blender Foundation is a non-profit, not a company and surely not a start-up. But, in most instances, software freedom is not the way to go when maximizing profit and hasn't been for decades. When software freedom, not money, is the goal, free software licenses make sense. And while I'm not a huge fan of copyleft, sometimes the GPL makes sense.

Funny enough, Blender didn't start as GPL software. It has proprietary origins.

I very well know, same for Linux and many others.

Linux kernel cannot be cloned