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General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
Articles
The General Public License (GPL) enshrines a softwarehacker's' freedom to use code in important ways. Hackers oftenrefer to the GPL as the free software movement's "constitution."Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), wrote the most recent version of the GPL, version 2.0, back in 1991. For a constitution, a fourteen-year-old document is young, but for a license, it is quite old. The revision process is finally underway, led by Stallman and Eben Moglen, FSF's general counsel.
The release of GPL version 3.0 will be momentous for many reasons, but one reason stands out: The GPL governs much of …
Entrepreneurial Open Source Software Hackers: Mysql And Its Dual Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
Entrepreneurial Open Source Software Hackers: Mysql And Its Dual Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
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Hackers often quibble about commercializing software, yet most willreadily sell their programming services. Richard Stallman, the father of free software, has always recognized that hackers have a right to make money. Aside from selling programming services, however, Stallman's disciples seem to frown upon commercializing software. Other hackers, labeling themselves "open source" developers, have warmed to the possibility that free software may be profitable.
This article describes one of the most promising business models for hackers, called "dual licensing." In this model, hackers offer the same code under two different licenses: a commercial license and an open source license. Licensees who …
De-Bugging Open Source Software Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
De-Bugging Open Source Software Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
Articles
Home computer users and businesses often rely on software developed by unconventional programmers known as "hackers." Hackers claim that the code they develop is superior in quality to the code developed by commercial software firms because hackers freely share the code they develop. This code sharing enables a multitude of programmers from around the world to rapidly find and fix bugs. The legal mechanism that enables hackers to deploy this worldwide team of de-buggers is a license agreement or, to be more precise,an assortment of license agreements known as "open source" licenses.
Although open source software developers may regularly fix …