to yourself(or within your compnay) then you can do whatever you please with it. Share it with the world and you cannot restrict them the rights you were given. The scenario i'm talking about is that i've created a piece of software that needs to include a (for the sake of argument) zip library. I don't need to modify the zip library and i've got no problem adding a thing to the help saying "i used the zip library from here". But there's a requirement that it has to be statically linked. The problem is not with the original zip library. The problem is the GPL license on the zip library infects the rest of my software. This is by specific design. And i defy you to tell me what is so morally reprehensible with what i'd be doing in this scenario. The further issue is that half the software in the world is for internal use but "we may sell it in the future". At this point it doesn't matter if we intend to share it right now or not. We have to act like we intend to share the software because otherwise we're foreclosing on our options prematurely. To be fair i've never understood what the big brouhaha about TiVo was. Functionally there's no difference between a TiVo and being on a mainframe where i'm not root. And i don't see FSF arguing that it's immoral for someone to not have admin access on every box they can