Why is this GPL?

[8bitprodigy]

This is a library. Why not use a more permissive license, such as MIT, BSD, or even LGPL?

[ehopperdietzel]

I understand that there are individuals/companies who want to keep their software private, whether it's for selling purposes or other reasons. However, at the same time, it raises concerns for me, especially in this field where it's quite possible that they might be extracting information from users. While this might sound a bit paranoid, it's not something to be taken lightly. Therefore, it's a dilemma that I need to reflect on. In the meantime, it will remain under GPL3, which doesn't preclude you from generating income by using it.

[ehopperdietzel]

I finally decided to go with MIT, but I first need to get rid of FreeImage, which uses GPL hahaha

[8bitprodigy]

Gotcha.

[8bitprodigy]

I'm mostly familiar with gamedev libraries, so my recommendation would be something like sdl or raylib for image loading. Maybe libpng if you're cool with supporting just png images.

[ehopperdietzel]

Thanks :), I'll look into them. But I think I'll just use libpng and libjpeg since they seem to be in every distro. Later, if the developer needs other formats, they could include libraries on their own.

[8bitprodigy]

Those are good choices. Very popular, and very permissively licensed.

[2xsaiko]

Which license would you recommend that restricts proprietary use while allowing you to use it? I'm asking sincerely, as I'm not familiar with all the specific details and conditions of all licenses. If you can point me to one, it would be very helpful.

LGPL, maybe. It allows linking any software against your library but modifications to your library must stay licensed as LGPL or GPL. https://choosealicense.com/licenses/lgpl-3.0/

It's the same license Qt and also KDE Frameworks is licensed under, for example.

[ehopperdietzel]

Thank you, very useful website. I've been giving this more thought, and I believe it's ultimately up to the users to decide whether they want to use proprietary software or not. Therefore, I will look for a less restrictive license that allows proprietary projects to be distributed. However, if any improvements or changes are made to the library itself, I want to require that they be shared with the community. So I think the MPL license would be a good choice.