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The GPL governs Linux and countless other projects in the free and open-source software arena. But a key tenet of the license creates a situation that amounts to economic imperialism, Schwartz argued at the Open Source Business Conference here.
Naturally, Schwartz presented an alternative, Sun's Community Development and Distribution License, or CDDL, an open-source license that's a variant of the earlier Mozilla Public License (MPL). Sun has begun releasing its Solaris source code under the CDDL in a project called OpenSolaris. Solaris is now free, though Sun sells support.
Schwartz singled out the GPL provision that says source code may be mixed with other code only if the other code also is governed by the GPL. That provision is intended to create a body of software that must remain liberated from proprietary constraints. But Schwartz said that some people he's spoken to dislike it because it precludes them from using open-source software as a foundation for proprietary projects.
"Economies and nations need intellectual property (IP) to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. I've talked to developing nations, representatives from academia and manufacturing companies that had begun to incorporate GPL software into their products, then...found they had an obligation to deliver their IP back into the world," Schwartz said.
The GPL purports to have freedom at its core, but it imposes on its users "a rather predatory obligation to disgorge all their IP back to the wealthiest nation in the world," the United States, where the GPL originated, Schwartz said. "If you look at the difference between the license we elected to use and GPL, there are no obligations to economies or universities or manufacturers that take the source code and embed it in (their own) code."
The GPL is being modernized, but its creator, Richard Stallman, has said the core tenet isn't going to change. And that tenet hasn't deterred programmers so far: The GPL is used in 68 percent of the thousands of projects tracked by the Freshmeat indexing site.
Representatives of the Free Software Foundation, which oversees the GPL, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sun is trying to ally itself with the open-source programming movement as part of a strategy to turn around its ailing fortunes. The company's revenue and stock price have remained largely flat in recent years despite a recovery in Sun's core market, powerful server computers at the heart of corporate networks.
Open-source software, despite being available for free, will help Sun financially, Schwartz said. "We're expecting more revenue," he said, citing historical parallels with the company's support of the now universal TCP/IP networking standard and the widely used Java software.
Schwartz also took on critics--and there are several--who have objected to Sun's refusal to release Java as open-source software. "Our refusal has nothing to do with Sun being proprietary and everything to do with wanting to keep Java from forking," he said, mentioning that Microsoft is not among the 900 companies that govern the technology's future via the Java Community Process.
One Java critic is Linux seller Red Hat, whose operating system competes directly against Sun's Solaris. Schwartz has said more than once that Sun has Red Hat squarely in its competitive crosshairs.
Tuesday, though, Schwartz tried to present a more collegial view.
"There is a community of communities in the open-source world. The open-sourcing of Solaris just increases the number and diversity of the community," he said. "It's not about being a predator on one set of people; it's about validating open source."
Schwartz also predicted that companies that pledge support for open-source software but that keep their own products proprietary will eventually be exposed as hypocrites and fall by the wayside
He mentioned no specific targets for this accusation, but Sun has leveled a similar criticism at IBM. Its WebSphere, Tivoli and Lotus software remains proprietary despite Big Blue's programming help with Linux and creation of the open-source Eclipse programming tools.
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Hah! Last time I checked the Sun LDAP Directory, web server, messaging, et al is proprietary software.
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?
So they want to climb on the backs of others who wanted there code shared, but not share any resulting code, and the GPL is the problem.
That is just too much irony to take.
So if you don't want to release your proprietary code under GPL, don't use GPL'ed code when you create it. Yes, it really is that simple.
Anyway, I think us third world countries don't mind sharing and contributing. I think it's a win-win situation and a fair deal.
Mr Jonathan Schwartz has kind of insulted us. It's like he's insinuating that we only want free things in opensource and are not interesting in giving back to the community. (Sorry Jonathan Schwartz, not everyone is as stingy as you and SUN)
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody.
-- Thomas Jefferson
From the article:
The GPL purports to have freedom at its core,
but it imposes on its users "a rather predatory
obligation to disgorge all their IP back to the
wealthiest nation in the world," the United
States, where the GPL originated, Schwartz said.
So, he's standing the US as a representative of a US-based corporation and using scare tactics to frighten people into believing that the GPL is a US plot to steal their intellectual "property." What a bunch of tinfoil-hat-wearing crap! Predatory?? He wants the right to confiscate other peoples' hard work and make a profit from it without giving them anything in return and he has the audacity to call others "predatory??!!!" Holy Cow! This guy is completely deranged!
Sun's actions keep being deeply schizophrenic.
Whether this is the way to lead a business and to build public confidence in a company I don't know, but what I know for sure is that I for one will avoid Sun like the plague from now on.
(not that I really learned to like Java much before anyway, though...)
That's exactly the main reason why so many people are prepared to contribute to open source projects. They have reassurance that no-one can simply take their contributions for free and use them to bootstrap their own commercial enterprise without giving anything back.
Of course "some people" are going to dislike that! Why should anyone have or expect that right?
some people = Schwartz and the gang.
Schwartz, please don't accuse us third world countries to be as shallow and stingy as you are.
Let's see, Let's suppose I design a system that fullfils a need in my country (Mexico) and I decide to make it GPL or I developed it using GPLed software as a start point, so I have to give the code back to the community (here you can read "to the WORLD"), and the preferable way to dothat is by posting it on the internet.
Ok, now lets suppose that a town in Africa, Australia, Argentina o even Cuba or Pakistan have the same need and they realize that the GPLed software of my invetion is usefull for them.. HOW in the world is the US going to stop them to get use modify and upgrade my invention?.. They just can't, imagine the US trying to control Cubans and noth coreans from learning physics or math, its just a fool idea.
What this companies want is to profit from the hard work made by a lot or people, just for free (gratis). Sorry.. GPL was intended to be like that.. you can be sure that the C O D E you give to the community wont be profited bye no one, because everyone leggally have to give thier improvements back to the community.
What's the rush about GPL?, if you develop a single driver, process, deamon, etc for Linux (just to give an example)and you give it for free (libre),you can then enjoy an etire Operating System free as well as a payback.
I wonder why people think that is a bad deal.
Greetings from Mexico
(gotta keep the hammer analogy, ya know ;-)
Sun is alienating every single person on earth with their outrageously dumb propaganda.
This is NOT how to do business.
If we look at IBM (as you said), they're not doing overwhelmingly much for the OSS community (at least AFAICS, considering weak hardware support), yet they're still doing their fair share and, most importantly, don't spread dumb criticism.
The truth is the actual imperialist is SUN and their CDDL license. Having people reporting bugs on their software for free and then retaining the control of the software. Jonathan Schwartz is a classic colonist and invader.
Mr Jonathan Schwartz sir, you and your company are best out from Malaysia.
- How is this different?
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by aabcdefghij987654321
April 7, 2005 12:55 PM PDT
- I recall a MS representative (Ballmer?) called the GPL "viral'. This story here just sounds like Sun has figured out the same thing, just years later.
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