And that includes Microsoft, which in fact does contribute to common infrastructure. SOAP is a good example. But the Net on which all of business increasingly relies is not a product of that model, even though business is certainly involved. It's valid only at that level. Here's an other view.
Business relies on infrastructure.
It is also in a position to contribute to infrastructure. But that infrastructure is, like the air and the Sun, public stuff. And that public stuff is produced by other motivations, concerns and principles. The GPL may not be a useful business license, but it's a mighty useful statement about why it was hackers, and not Microsoft, who gave us the Net. I found this out by reading the latest EGR , and following one of its several links to the best portal ever to grace Amazon's rapaciously clueful customer-involvement apparatus.