[A2k] Financial Times: GPL software rewrite pushes for greater openness in the industry

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

GPL software rewrite pushes for greater openness in the industry

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Published: March 31 2007 03:00 | Last updated: March 31 2007 03:00

A divisive philosophical -battle in an arcane corner of the software
business could lead to some unexpected consequences for consumer
electronics makers and other technology companies, according to
industry lawyers and analysts.

The fight, over a rewrite of a widely used software licence known as
the GPL, appeared to be largely resolved on Wednesday. But it will
still have wider repercussions for the growing number of companies that
have come to rely on so-called open source products, such as Linux, an
operating system that is widely used in digital home appliances. Open
source software is generally free of charge and users can delve into,
and add to, the software themselves.

In future, if the compromise over the GPL is adopted, anyone with the
technical competence will have the right to crack open a television
set-top box or any other gadget that employs the software and add new
capabilities and -features to the device themselves.

This is one likely consequence of the first rewrite of the licence for
15 years. The battle is central to the broader question of intellectual
property rights in the internet age. It concerns an approach to
licensing software that, over the past -decade, has come to be seen as
the model for an open approach to letting people share ideas over the
internet.

Devised nearly 20 years ago by Richard Stallman, a maverick programmer
and activist, the GPL has been adapted to wider uses.

Software issued under the GPL, such as Linux, is freely available for
anyone to use or add to, with the proviso that any amendments are made
freely available. This system stands in sharp -contrast to the
traditional "closed" approach of the commercial software business and
was once attacked as a "cancer" that could infect the entire software
business by Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft.

The rewrite of the GPL, under way for the past year by Mr Stallman's
Free Software Foundation, has provoked a philosophical battle between
hard-core supporters of intellectual openness and more pragmatic
moderates, such as Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux project. Mr
Torvalds denounced -earlier drafts, arguing that they did not meet the
practical needs of technology companies that use the software.

In this week's final draft of the licence, Mr Stallman stepped back
from some of his more radical proposals.

However, the draft still pushes for greater openness, for instance
through the clause aimed at consumer electronics makers.

Another clause takes direct aim at Microsoft, which caused
consternation in the open source world last year with an alliance with
Novell, a Linux distributor.

The Microsoft deal "threatens the entire free software distribution
chain" and the licence has been revised to prevent it from being
carried through, said Brett Smith, an official at the FSF.

While denying that the new GPL would succeed in undermining its deal
with Novell, Horacio Gutierrez, head of intellectual property licensing
at Microsoft, said it was "unfortunate" that the GPL was being redrawn
"to prevent future collaboration among industry leaders to benefit
customers".

Copyright

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org