Ask HN: Which OS License you try to avoid? And why?

Context is missing, so "it depends" applies.

GPL can be used inside proprietary products, the copyleft clause is only activated if you distribute the product to other parties. And by distribution this doesn't mean public distribution, it just means giving the code to the person who receives the binaries.

On the case of web services, it is rare to see distribution of software.

I could go on writing the whole day about the matter. In the end what wins is the end-user context. Licenses are like weapons, each one was created for a specific scenario.

Are you in a highly competitive field? If so, any code you can avoid writing is a competitive advantage, and means you can push out a product faster than everyone else. In those cases, use, buy, and ask for any code which will benefit the production and only avoid licenses which directly prevents your business model from earning revenue.

MIT, BSD or Apache are fine. I try to avoid GPL as it tends to bring up more issues than it solves with the derived works clause.

http://choosealicense.com/licenses