Comment by palata

> the only thing licenses help with is discouraging people from using it in the first place

It may discourage people from using it, often because it's easier to go with a permissive alternative. But if there was no permissive license at all and only weak copyleft, then I am absolutely convinced that people would use them just fine.

One important thing I believe you miss is that weak copyleft gives developers leverage to contribute back during their work time. If my company needs this particular library which is MPLv2, then as a developer, internally I can tell my managers that I must upstream my changes. Whereas if it is permissive, then I can try to ask the permission to upstream my changes, and obviously that will be refused (because it takes time which costs money).

By using a reciprocal license, you give developers a legal reason to contribute back during their work time. Ain't that amazing?