This is a work in progress to develop talking points for those interested in evangelizing about free software. My inspiration springs from two sources:
  • Microsoft's continued insistence that the GPL is a "virus"
  • Richard Stallman's fantastic and inspirational writing on the subject.

    I am interested in making this a comprehensive listing of for all the various situations where one might need to engage in public deliberations or advocacy on free software issues, but I've started with the modest goal of dismissing Microsoft's inane disease metaphors when discussing the GPL. This was initiated (as far as I know) when Craig Mundie (a vp at Microsoft) was quoted as calling free software (he misidentified it as "open source") "unamerican" and referring to the GPL as a "virus".

    So, here goes.

    Talking points regarding Microsoft's assertion that the GPL is viral.

  • Vaccine not a virus - prevents the worst abuses of the Intellectual Property Regime
  • Microsoft license violators go to jail, GPL violators generally remove the code or open their source
  • Microsoft famously "borrowed" Apple's user interface for windows
  • Microsoft's market position depends on OS lock-in, this is similarly "viral"
  • Sounds like MTV's marketing campaign - "I'm itchy. Do I have GPL?"
  • Proprietary software is a tourniquet, bottlenecking the free flow of ideas at the corporate control point.
  • GPL guarantees freedoms are passed on, more like Microsoft's End User License Agreements than a virus
  • IBM, Sun, Red Hat, others fully understand GPL and continue to invest heavily in it. Wladawsky-Berger said "We don't think it's a trick, and as you know, we have lots of lawyers"

    links: linux-advocacy faq 1