GPL

Lately there has been a lot of nonsense (as I see it, ho ho) going around about the GPL. Perhaps it's just that the people who dislike it are becoming more outspoken, but many people are saying that they have recently come to believe that the GPL must necessarily spell the end of all software companies, the loss of zillions of jobs, and so on and so forth. I believe this is all a lot of hooey. The following material is (currently) the culmination of a long and involved thread on the subject on Google+; I will spare you a link as this is probably the most cogent contribution I made to the conversation anyway. Content after the break.