A topic that comes up quite often on news sites is the upcoming GPL v3 license, the GPL v2 has been around for 10+ years. While this should be discussed I haven't seen an article that puts it into context. When we look at the opensource software projects that are having a big impact many of them don't use the GPL - firefox, apache, php for example or dual license like mysql. Why did these projects create there own license in the first place? Most of these projects have updated their licenses in past few years why? Is there a trend? Is there really only five or six different positions on licensing or do we really need the forty or so OSI licenses? Are for profit organizations heading in one direction and not for profit organizations in another? Why do some dual license? How does all of this fit into the IT landscape of developers, ISVs, resellers, consultants and users?

I've read many articles but haven't had any of these questioned answered.

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