Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Reviews

    Linux Is Free to Sidestep a Stubborn FSF

    By
    Jason Brooks
    -
    June 21, 2007
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Between the foundational free software components and licenses that the Free Software Foundation has made possible–chief of which are, respectively, the GNU Compiler Collection and the GPL–the FSF has laid much of technological and legal groundwork that underlies free and open-source software as we know it today.

      One of the features of free software licensing that pleases me most–and for which I feel most grateful to the FSF for helping build–is the flexibility that free software stakeholders enjoy for dealing with the inability or unwillingness of vendors or projects to suit user needs. Free software stakeholders may simply take the code and branch out on their own. With enough backing, these forked projects can overtake their heirs, which is what happened when the XFree86 project gave way to X.org.

      Soon, I believe, the FSF may find itself in the odd position of being likewise jettisoned by a large and important part of its user base for the FSF’s refusal to respect the needs and desires of its own stakeholders. The FSF is preparing to release version 3 of its popular and influential GPL license, complete with new provisions that would require vendors of certain types of devices to enable end users to run modified versions of the GPL-licensed software that drives those devices.

      The issue, which goes by the name of “Tivoization,” seems really to cheese off the FSF, which holds that vendors such as Tivo should not be able to foist DRM and other user-unfriendly controls on device end users. The FSF views Tivoization as a loophole left open by the GPL2, and one that needs closing in the GPL3.

      Linus Torvalds and many of the Linux kernel developers disagree.

      For a somewhat interesting debate on whether the GPL would be a freer license with or without Tivoization restrictions, you can read this exchange from the Linux Kernel mailing lists, in which Linux project leader Linus Torvalds and Alexandre Oliva, a Red Hat compiler engineer who’s active in the FSF, go back and forth on the topic.

      While I understand the arguments on both sides, I tend to agree with Linus and the kernel developers on this one.

      Even though I’m the sort of person who gets a kick out of modifying the software on black box consumer devices, adding new rules to the GPL to govern how device vendors interact with their users seems like opening a pandora’s box of confusion. The GPL3 drafts I’ve read so far talk of exceptions for particular sorts of devices–it’s OK, for instance, for medical devices to bar software modifications, and it’s OK for security systems not intended for home use to bar modifications. Do free and open-source software developers really want to take on the additional policing efforts that would be required to hold vendors’ feet to the fire on these potentially complex use case scenarios?

      The frustrating thing about this somewhat esoteric Tivoization flap is that there really is a need for a new GPL version–at its core, the license upgrade is aimed at clarifying the controls and rights that already exist in the GPL2, particularly those surrounding software patents.

      This is a worthwhile goal, since a lack of clarity surrounding software patents currently casts somewhat of a shadow over open-source software, with Microsoft co-opting Linux distributors such as Novell, Xandros and Linspire–each of whom package and sell the efforts of free software developers upstream–to cast doubt on the legality of the code they redistribute.

      The GPL3 should either shelve its anti-Tivoization restrictions all together, or, better still, spin those controls off into a separate license, as the FSF sagely did with the Affero clause that set out to redefine software distribution to include offering Internet applications up for public use. If open-source developers wish to crack down on what you could well call “Googleization” (Google’s Web applications are built on open source, but Google doesn’t share its code), then these developers can opt for the Affero General Public License.

      The good news is that even if the FSF sticks to its guns and remains unmoved by the concerns of the GPL’s most important project, the Linux developers needn’t ever move to the GPL3, nor need anyone else. Linus and the rest of the kernel team could conceivably excise the offending Tivoization portions of the GPL3 and move ahead with a license that benefits from the modernization and clarification work that the FSF has done while lacking unpalatable and arguably overreaching added controls.

      What’s more, since it was a lack of clarity surrounding patents that, in part at least, stood in the way of Sun selecting the GPL2 as a license for OpenSolaris, perhaps Sun would be interested in making available some attorneys to help with the revisions. Maybe Linus Torvalds and Johnathan Schwartz should talk it over during their upcoming dinner.

      After all, the FSF may be too interested in perfecting its vision of free to make room at the table for its VIP guests, but the nature of open source leaves those guests free to set out a new spread for themselves.

      Avatar
      Jason Brooks
      As Editor in Chief of eWEEK Labs, Jason Brooks manages the Labs team and is responsible for eWEEK's print edition. Brooks joined eWEEK in 1999, and has covered wireless networking, office productivity suites, mobile devices, Windows, virtualization, and desktops and notebooks. Jason's coverage is currently focused on Linux and Unix operating systems, open-source software and licensing, cloud computing and Software as a Service. Follow Jason on Twitter at jasonbrooks, or reach him by email at [email protected]

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×