O'Reilly Network: GPL Problem?

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http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/ask_tim/1999/gpl_problem.html
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Date: Nov 5 1999
From: Fred Mobach
To: ask_tim@oreilly.com
Subject: GPL Problem?

Tim,

At the Open Source Meeting in Amsterdam on Wednesday, July 15, 1999 in the Vondelkerk, you talked about a problem with the GPL that should be solved by Richard Stallman. Due to my lack of understanding the English language, I missed the point, but I would like to know what the problem is. Can you tell me?

Thanks in advance.

--Fred

Fred,

The problem that I was referring to was that the GPL assumes that software is being distributed. That is, if you modify and redistribute a GPL'd program, you must make your modifications also subject to the GPL.

However, many of the leading applications of today aren't distributed at all. They are host-based services. Consider amazon or e-trade or any other e-commerce application. Or maps.yahoo.com and other map and direction servers. For that matter, consider altavista and other search engines. These are the applications that are bringing new functionality to computers.

These applications can be built on top of open-source software with no obligation for the developers to give their improvements back to the Open Source community.

I described this specifically as a problem for Richard Stallman and the GPL because many other open-source licenses, such as the Berkeley, X11, and Apache licenses, allow for proprietary forks anyway. I like these licenses; they encourage people to contribute patches and improvements back to the Open Source community because doing so leads to better software, not because of some moral imperative.

Still, I think it's extremely important that the large host-based users of open-source software realize just how much benefit they've derived from it and make conscious efforts to contribute back to the Open Source community. Because they don't have to distribute their software in order for people to make use of it, it's easy to forget just how much benefit there is in making source available.

One of the problems with a massive market shift like that from the PC era to the Web era is that the rules change in ways we often don't appreciate until some time has passed. And by then, we may not like the world we've inadvertently created.

For example, when IBM released the specifications for the PC, they ushered in an era of openness and competition in the computer hardware industry. But what was built on top of that open hardware architecture was a fiercely proprietary software industry. That industry eventually stagnated, as barriers to entry became high.

The Open Source movement has created an open and competitive playing field for the software industry, leading to the explosion of Web-based information services and applications. But we face the danger that that new layer too will become proprietary.

For this reason, I urge all online application providers to establish a firm habit of openness while the industry is still young. By the time a company realizes that it's painted itself into a corner by being unnecessarily proprietary, it may be too late.

-- Tim

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