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July 15, 2004
Splitting Open Source
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
A well-meaning French bid to protect open source may in fact lead to its splitting.
A new license called CeCILL is designed to make the GNU compatible with French law, which tends to make software authors liable for user problems unless there is specific language to the contrary. (Parents, get your kids a book set in France to wile away the summertime from the list this image illustrates.)
Well and good. But what happens when you try to marry something written under CeCILL with something written under the U.S. version of GNU? What is the license agreement on the new software?
The question seems esoteric, but it matters when you're trying to get a software system used by big companies and governments. A Microsoft user license is the same everywhere. You may not like it but at least you understand it, if you're a lawyer.
Linux licenses must be the same. The Free Software Foundation, Europe is asking the French to talk, and hopefully they will (once they get over yesterday's Bastille Day parties).
Comments (1)
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Brad Hutchings on July 21, 2004 12:46 PM writes...
Or maybe Linux will need to move to a more flexible open source license (BSD-ish) like PHP and Apache use. They've never had any problems like this. Linux still has a very small marketshare, while Apache is more than a majority of web servers. Could the license be a barrier to adoption? The GPL is not the only open source way of doing things.
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