I was just reading an interesting story about how Oracle has released some libraries that provide clustering over Firewire for Linux. Very cool stuff - and even better, they are releasing the code under the GPL!
Now Bill Gates would have us think that the GPL will eat all your IP, and corporations should stay away from it. So why would a company like Oracle release software under the GPL at all?
Because the GPL will actually protect them. It all of a sudden came to me, and it makes so much sense. First, the question is simply whether to release your code or not, and that is not an easy question to answer for many large companies. But once you decide to, how do you choose a license? One of the biggest fears companies seem to have when you talk about open sourcing their code is losing their competitive advantage, or giving away their secrets to competitors.
If they were to use almost any other license (such as the BSD license) then this is entirely possible. One of Oracle's competitors can take the code and use it to their advantage without having to publish the code.
But if they use the GPL, competitors will be obliged to publish the code if they change it (and redistribute the software) and only use it in GPLed software. So really, in this case it protects Oracle from their code being exploited, because it mandates a level playing field. Any improvements to their code will be contributed back.
I think I will rewrite this into a more coherent story... I just thought I should write it down first, before I forget!
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