I think the first thing you need to ask yourself when looking at the viral nature of the GPL is the audience. Arguments against the viral nature of the GPL are capitalist-centric and targeted towards owners of proprietary software companies and businesses. Arguments for the viral nature of the GPL favor independnet FOSS developers. Let me explain.
The viral nature of the GPL can be crudely summed up like this: If you take GPL’d code, modify it, and then redestribute it, that re-distribution must be under the GPL. Therefore, the code that you add or modify must also fall under the GPL. Ask yourself… why is this a problem? (more…)
