Why not contribute? (to GCC)

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 04/26/2010 11:23 AM, Mark Mielke wrote:
> Personally, this whole issue is problematic to me. I really can't see
> why I would ever sue somebody for using software that I had declared
> free.

Because (a derivative of) it is being made nonfree?

> It wouldn't be worth my time and I have trouble understanding how
> I could demonstrate personal loss making the law suit worth persuing in
> the first place.

Perhaps because you know the code better than anyone else, so you could 
provide paid support on that derivative as well.

Or maybe because you have to.  There was a case of a free software 
project (JMRI) being sued for patent infringement by a proprietary 
software company.  It turned out that the proprietary software included 
source code from the free software project without attribution (copyleft 
was not even necessary, as the project was under the Artistic License!). 
  In this case, the possibility to counter-sue saved the free software 
programmer from having to pay millions of dollars.

Paolo