Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

More GPL examples

Author:Eric Kidd
Posted:9/10/2000; 1:25:56 PM
Topic:Guido and Richard
Msg #:21118 (In response to 21093)
Prev/Next:21117 / 21119

David McCusker asks if people ever make open source software proprietary:

Can someone cite a single example where this happened? I just wonder how serious the problem is.

This has happened, and it can be quite serious.

In the early 1980's, the original BSD developers devoted many man-years to enhancing Unix. They gave all of this code to AT&T under an open source license (even though the term hadn't been invented yet). Much of this code showed up in System V Unix from AT&T.

Many years later, AT&T turned around and sued the BSD developers. Their argument: Some AT&T code has contaminated BSD Unix, and you must not distribute any more of your code.

Such gratitude. This is basically why the GPL exists.

An Example

Or I would make it clear the same code was available for free, and thank the seller for the free advertising.

Here's a more complicated scenario, based on several real-world incidents.

Consider GCC, a portable C compiler. GCC represents several hundred programmer-years of work, and untold millions of R&D. About half of this R&D was paid for by Cygnus, and the rest was donated by other developers. All this code is under the GPL.

Let's say that SneakySoft decides to enhance GCC, and sell it as their own (proprietary) C compiler. They spend one programmer-year and $200,000 to port GCC to a new processor. They distribute the result under the "SneakySoft Not-So-Public License" (SNSPL) and call it "SneakyCC".

Now, perhaps 1% of SneakyCC is original code. The remaining 99% of SneakyCC belongs to Richard Stallman, Cygnus, and several hundred independent developers. SneakySoft, though, claims that 100% of SneakyCC is proprietary.

SneakySoft has just violated the GPL. The copyright holders of GCC forbid this particular use of their code, and SneakySoft ignored their request.

Now, since Cygnus has very deep pockets (and RMS is friends with very good lawyers), SneakySoft will be getting a letter in the mail. If history is any indication, SneakySoft will settle out of court, and release their 1% under the GPL (or withdraw SneakyCC from the market).

If you don't like these terms, then you shouldn't enhance GCC. :-)

Cheers,
Eric

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