Is the GPL Really Declining?
Comparing the mid to late 90s with today it seems hackers have on the whole become more commercially minded.  Back in the 90s there was a more idealistic and &#x27;punk&#x27; ethos surrounding the hacker scene with documents like the Hacker Manifesto being a thing people actually believed in and aspired to.  The GPL fit right into that.<p>Then the world changed a bit and all of a sudden people realized that you could become both a millionaire and even a billionaire as a software developer.  And do you know what&#x27;s cooler than being part of an idealistic punk scene? A billion dollars!<p>Now licenses that got in the way of you making money weren&#x27;t as attractive anymore.  And licenses that made it easier for you to make money off of software written by other people became the new hot thing.<p>That at least is my naive take on what I&#x27;ve observed over the past 20-odd years.