January 22, 2008 2:21 PM PST
Vegans join the open-source revolution
Talk about anti-viral! The ExtTLD license has some restrictions that might make even Richard Stallman blush:
- You agree you are not developing or manufacturing products, and where applicable their ingredients, which involve, or have involved, testing of any sort on animals conducted at the initiative of the manufacturer or on its behalf, or by parties over whom the manufacturer has effective control....
- You agree you are not involved in or profit from the use of animals for entertainment such as circuses, hunts, rodeos and races etc.
No, I'm not making this up. Yes, this is weird in the extreme. And no, given the restrictions, this isn't open source as it "discriminates against persons or groups." Namely, carnivores and those who support them. Or is it?
Isn't this what Red Hat (and other open-source companies) does by creating additional contract terms around distribution of its GPL-licensed software? If it's acceptable for Red Hat (and I, for one, think it is), is it not acceptable when used for vegan purposes?
There's a highly interesting open source question nestled in here....
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
