By Rachel Chalmers
Apple Computer Inc may not be the new open source poster child after all. Prominent members of the open source and free software communities have expressed major concerns over Apple’s new Public Source License (APSL). Bruce Perens, primary author of the Open Source Definition; Wichert Akkerman, Debian project leader and Ian Jackson, president of Software in the Public Interest have jointly published a document detailing problems they see with the license agreement as it stands.
They note that a lot of the material Apple has released as part of its Darwin operating system originated at UC Berkeley and Carnegie-Mellon University. This software was already available under the BSD license and other widely recognized open source licenses. Where Apple has not significantly modified individual files from their pre-Apple versions, their original licenses should be preserved without the addition of the APSL, write Perens et al.
The three also worry about a section of the APSL that requires anyone who produces modifications to APSL-licensed code to notify Apple of the changes. While the demise of Apple Computer Inc is unlikely in the near future, that sad event would leave us unable to comply, they point out, this would constitute a restriction on all rights granted by the license. They suggest that Apple should settle for publication of such modifications on a globally accessible web site, such as a personal home page.
Finally, Perens and his co-authors claim that the APSL allows Apple to terminate rights to use APSL-covered code, at its sole discretion. In the past, Perens has grumbled over similar problems with IBM’s Jikes license. When developers write modifications for open source software, he argues, they invest time and energy in that software. An arbitrary termination could cause us to suddenly lose that investment at some future date, with no chance for appeal, the document asserts, the licenses accepted by our community do not provide the possibility of termination in this manner.
Perens and his co-authors are not above taking a dig at Eric Raymond, who lent his high-profile support to Apple’s Darwin launch yesterday. They say accusing him of being: a little too fast to embrace the APSL in his enthusiasm to welcome Apple to our community. He placed the open source designation on a license that wasn’t quite ready for that. Eric and other members of the free software comity are invited to join Perens and his co- authors in calling on Apple to make the requested changes to the APSL.
