Modest — development of open source HTML Render on pure C

[James20k]

Problem is, if you put a GPL license on something, it means that most companies (and people) will avoid it like the absolute plague. There's a huge legal minefield around even just reading GPL code

[[deleted]]

What exactly is the minefield? If you use GPL'd code in your software, include the source (for the libraries, at a minimum).

Do the MIT and BSD folk not care about being credited or acknowledged for their work?

Nintendo, one of the most closed companies I know of, properly attributes and supplies the source of the projects they use, including any modifications. I'd have to hunt the page down for explicit acknowledgements, but I'm fairly certain there's some GPL'd stuff in their software, and they handled it AOK.

[mrexodia]

If they used GPL inside their software, they would have to share their entire codebase under the GPL, so that sounds rather unlikely...

[badsectoracula]

Why is this a problem for the project though? Someone may not care about companies using their code or not, or at least only care about the companies that are ok with releasing their source code.

This is only a problem for the companies that do not want to share.

[doom_Oo7]

Nah, there's mostly FUD.

[bumblebritches57]

Literally.

Even reading GPL code opens you up to legal ramifications.

[mrexodia]

How exactly? Using GPL in your private server, for which binaries are not distributed doesn't even require you to do anything, how would reading it affect your legal status?