GPL

The open-source license landscape is changing

There's no such thing as "the" open-source license. There are lots of them. Sixty-nine to be precise if one accepts the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as the definitive arbiter of what is open source and what is not.

Some are essentially legacy licenses; in general, the continued proliferation of licenses has abated in recent years but it's often more trouble than it's worth to fully retire licenses that are still in use by active software. Others won't be relevant to a specific type of copyrighted material, such as software programs. (Material under an open-source … Read more

Alt media player VLC cut from Apple App Store

Popular media player VLC has been pulled from Apple's App Store at the request of one of the program's original developers--in a move that's caused some hard feelings in the world of open-source software.

The situation involves a conflict between the General Public License, which governs VLC and many other open-source programs, and App Store policies.

"On January 7th, Apple removed VLC media player from its application store for iDevices," Remi Denis-Courmont, one of the developers of the desktop version of VLC, wrote in a blog post picked up by the Web site of the … Read more

Sencha's Web-app tools reach mobile browsers

Sencha, a start-up trying to make a business out of open-source tools for building Web applications, has begun an important new phase of its business with its first foray into the hot mobile browser market.

The new Sencha Touch 1.0 software is a JavaScript programming framework out of which mobile Web apps can be built. It joins the company's earlier products, the Ext JS and Ext GWT frameworks and the Ext Designer developer tool.

The tools are designed for those who need to build user interfaces out of dialog boxes, pop-up windows, sliders, charts, check-boxes, and all the … Read more

Dell checks for open-source licensing misstep

Dell is responding to concerns in the open-source community that it didn't comply with the rules governing Android software used in its Streak tablet.

The Streak was released in the U.K. in June, and in the U.S. in July. Recently, a group of developers started a mini-protest online after they found, they said, that Dell failed to release some source code components for the Streak as required by anyone using software governed by the GNU General Public License.

The GPL requires those who use software governed by the license to make available any changes they made to … Read more

Could Apache keep Google's regulators at bay?

Google loves Apache.

Lost in the flutter over Google's hymn to openness is an intriguing factoid on open-source licensing:

Though many of the programs hosted on Google Code are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), when Google wants to open-source its software, it turns to the Apache Software License version 2.0.

Why?

Google's Jonathan Rosenberg elucidates:

When we open source our code we use standard, open Apache 2.0 licensing, which means we don't control the code. Others can take our open source code, modify it, close it up and ship it as their … Read more

Best Buy, Samsung, others named in GPL suit

Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, and JVC are among 14 consumer electronics companies named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Monday in New York by the Software Freedom Law Center.

According to the complaint (PDF), the defendants sold products containing software application BusyBox in violation of the terms of its license, the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2).

The entire list of companies named in the suit is as follows: Best Buy; Samsung; Westinghouse; JVC; Western Digital; Robert Bosch; Phoebe Micro; Humax USA; Comtrend; Dobbs-Stanford; Versa Technology; Zyxel Communications; Astak; GCI Technologies.

Microsoft reposts Windows 7 download tool

Microsoft said Wednesday it has reposted a tool to the Internet that aids installing Windows 7 on Netbooks and computers without an optical drive.

The software maker pulled the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool off its Web site last month after it was pointed out that the software appeared to use open-source code licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL v2). Microsoft later apologized and said that the code did in fact use GPL code. Microsoft said it would repost the tool and make it open source under the terms of the GPL.

Microsoft posted the open-source version of … Read more

MySQL and a tale of two biases

Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun-MySQL has turned into a political circus, with both sides digging in their heels in preparation for a fight. However, the most interesting commentary on the deal may actually be coming from two highly interested parties with two very different perspectives on the takeover: MySQL co-founder Monty Widenius and IBM.

What's interesting in their positions is that only one of the parties pretends to be neutral. Surprisingly, the overtly biased party, IBM, comes to a very different conclusion than Widenius.

It has everything to do with money.

As Pamela Jones at Groklaw acutely analyzes, … Read more

Microsoft: Windows 7 tool used GPL code

Microsoft said Friday that its inquiry confirms that a tool aimed to make it easier to load Windows 7 on a Netbook does in fact contain open-source code.

"After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part," Microsoft's Peter Galli said in a blog posting. "While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process. We have furthermore conducted a review … Read more

Microsoft pulls Windows 7 download tool

Microsoft has halted distribution of a tool aimed at making it easier to put Windows 7 on Netbooks amid allegations that the utility makes improper use of open-source code.

The software maker said on Tuesday that it has pulled down the Windows USB/DVD Tool while it investigates the issue, which was raised last week by Windows blogger Rafael Rivera on his Within Windows blog.

In his blog post, Rivera said Microsoft appears to use code from a tool called ImageMaster that is licensed under the GPLv2 open-source license. The General Public License, like other open-source licenses, allows code to … Read more