GPL Project Watch List for Week of 04/25

The GPL v3 Watch List is intended to give you a snapshot of the GPLv3/LGPLv3 adoption for April 19th through April 25th, 2008.

Happy Earth Day
In this green week where we support the protection of our environment, it is nice to work in the open source community that shares the same principals of efficiency and waste reduction. Over the past week 9 new AGPL v3 projects have been added to our database, which is a 13% increase in AGPL v3 projects, bringing the total to 77 AGPL v3 projects. The GPL v3 had a slow week with 28 new GPL v3 projects being added, bringing its total to 2212 GPL v3 projects. This is much lower than the average rate for the GPL v3, but it is only one data point. However, we are interested to see if the AGPL v3 redirects projects that would have adopted the GPL v3 or if projects that are currently under the GPL v3 switch over the the AGPL v3. This will be difficult to analyze, but we are keeping a close eye on the numbers to see if there are any significant shifts.

This Week:

• New Projects
• AGPL Booster

New project conversions this week include:

• sgeng: Fully AJAXed and JSONed Web CMS. Fast and easy site creation. Content, news, messages, users management. Accounting, commenting, banning, tabs, simple BB-codes, news, inter-user messaging system and on-site searching systems.
• InterLDAP: InterLDAP is a collection of modules designed around directories.
• Butterfly Organizer: Butterfly Organizer is a PHP/MySQL solution for organizing web accounts. Butterfly Organizer has a simple and intuitive menu which helps you control the entire application.

GNU Affero General Public License May Get a Boost
Ubuntu's Launchpad may adopt the AGPL, as stated in a recent article by Matt Asay. This could be the project AGPL needs to get its foot in the open source door. As with the GPL v3, the key issues to its adoption is how many and who. Just as important as how many projects are adopting a license, is who is adopting. The two are linked and perpetuate the other, which is why it is important to keep an eye on both figures. As we have seen in the past weeks, the numbers are slowly but surely gaining for the AGPL but it is still lacking in big name support. Clipperz, a relatively large project, is already licensed under the AGPL, but more large projects need to adopt the license for it to take off as a license. Perhaps the fast rate of adoption of the AGPL, as well as all the press, brought Ubuntu's eye to the AGPL, but surely if Launchpad decides to use the license the rate will increase further.

References:
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9927910-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad


Notable Mention
Palamida actively takes submissions from visitors on updates on new GPL v3/LGPL 3 projects. We are amazed at the number of submissions we have gotten to date, but even more so, we are incredibly grateful to the almost 100 core contributors who have devoted their time and resources at helping us provide up-to-date information.



The Research Group (rdgroup@palamida.com)

• Ernest Park
• Antony Tran
• Kevin Howard
  

GPL Project Watch List for Week of 04/18

The GPL v3 Watch List is intended to give you a snapshot of the GPLv3/LGPLv3 adoption for April 4th through April 18th, 2008.

AGPL v3 is Growing
Our database is being adjusted for the support of the AGPL v3 which is why there may be small inconsistencies last week and this week, but they will be sorted out by our next blog. This week our current GPL v3 count is at 2184 GPL v3 projects, an increase of 77 GPL v3 projects. Our LGPL v3 number is now at 200 LGPL v3 projects, an increase of 12 LGPL v3 projects.

Now onto our recently added license the AGPL v3. Last week our database contained 55 AGPL v3 projects. This week we are at 68 AGPL v3 projects, which is an increase of just over 20%. This is a significant increase percentage wise, even though it is only a 13 project increase. However, our prediction is that the adoption rate will rise in number and decrease in percentage as the current amount in the database grows.

This Week:

• New Projects
• Saas Story
• LGPL v3 Hits 200
• User Updates
  

New project conversions this week include:

• cmsimple: CMSimple is one of the smallest, smartest and most simple Content Management Systems under the GPL or AGPL licence.
• neo4j: Neo is a netbase — a network-oriented database — that is, an embedded, disk-based, fully transactional Java persistence engine that stores data structured in networks rather than in tables.
• shogiserver: A Java-based server for the Japanese chess variant "Shogi". Features both a Java-based client and a Java-based server. The idea is to emulate the functionality of the popular Go server KGS (ability to play, observe, store, and review games in a group).

Its OK to Say No
With the recent release of the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 there has been controversy around open source repositories. The problem within the community is that certain repositories will not support particular licenses. But this has always been a problem with all repositories. Repositories are lacking in license options, as there is not a single repository that supports all and every version of licenses.

On the repository side, they are allowed to run their sites however they would like, under the terms that they see fit. Each repository has their own terms or are for particular languages or have some other standards that the projects hosted on it must abide by. The repositories set their rules and the projects in the open source community will join the hosting site that best fits their needs. There will be a natural sorting of all the projects into the existing repos. However, there can be problems once there is a change to open source, such as the AGPL v3. By introducing a new license, repositories must make a decision as to whether or not that license fits the standards by which they run their site by.

This is the main issue that we would like to discuss. It is perfectly fine for repositories to set their own guidelines, in fact they should, so that projects can be hosted on a site that fits their needs. However, when there is a change in the open source space, repositories should be swift and decisive in their decision on how they will handle it. For example, with the release of the AGPL v3 the Google Code repository stated that they would not host the license because it was not OSI-approved. However, when the license did become approved, they said they did not want to host the license because it was not popular enough. Given that both reasons were probably based in their belief of fighting license proliferation, this caused confusion and uncertainty for the projects hosted on the site and in the open source space in general. We would like to suggest that repositories are clear and decisive when there are changes in FOSS, whether it be a yes or no. This would help control the complications that come about with things such as new licenses.

References:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-code-hosting/browse_thread/thread/1714c5c0ef5d9f9f/7d59a938d295bb8f


LGPL v3 Hits 200
As of this week there are now 200 projects that are licensed under th LGPL v3. The LGPL v3 is a derivative of the GPL v3 that has less restrictions than the original. Some projects adopted the license because of this reason, and it has slowly gained a small market share in FOSS. Some projects that have adopted the LGPL v3 are Jaspersoft and OpenOffice.

The LGPL has served OpenOffice.org well, so the move to LGPL v3 seemed very logical. LGPLv3 is actually almost identical to GPLv3, but with an additional clause limiting the scope of the requirement to release source code under the same license. (http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/openoffice_org_goes_to_lgplv3).

There are many license available for projects these days, and it is important for them to choose one that will protect their code as they see fit. Since there was controversy around the GPL v3 when it was released, concerning its requirements, the LGPL v3 may be better for those who are looking for a little more licensing freedom, while retaining the protection against software patents of the GPL v3.

Thanks for the Continued Support and Contributions
Our database is partly maintained by our team of researchers as well by the contributions that are received from the community. Here are some submissions we received last week through our online form:

****************************************************************************
CDS-PhP

Description:

CDS-PhP Lets bring service technical management of a computer, you can manage earnings equipment workshop, keep track of RMA, generating orders armed and maintain a stock of spare parts.

Newest Release:
CDS-PhP 3.0 Version
****************************************************************************
GNU SIP Witch

Description:
GNU SIP Witch is a pure SIP-based office telephone call server that supports generic phone system features like call forwarding, hunt groups and call distribution, call coverage and ring groups, holding, and call transfer, as well as offering SIP specific capabilities such as presence and messaging. It supports secure telephone extensions for making calls over the Internet, and intercept/decrypt-free peer-to-peer audio and video extensions. It is not a SIP proxy, a multi-protocol telephone server, or an IP-PBX, and does not try to emulate Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, or Yate.

Newest Release:
sipwitch-0.1.0.tar.gz

****************************************************************************

We appreciate all the contributions that have been made, either through our form on our web page or by email, and we also like to hear why you are changing your project's license as in the email above. It gives us more insight into which direction license trends are moving. We will continue to post up user contributions to our blog each week, and we may quote parts of your emails. If you wish the email to remain private, just mention so and we will not disclose any part of it.

Much Appreciated,

Palamida R&D Group


Notable Mention
Palamida actively takes submissions from visitors on updates on new GPL v3/LGPL 3 projects. We are amazed at the number of submissions we have gotten to date, but even more so, we are incredibly grateful to the almost 100 core contributors who have devoted their time and resources at helping us provide up-to-date information.


The Research Group (rdgroup@palamida.com)

• Ernest Park
• Antony Tran
• Kevin Howard

GPL Project Watch List for Week of 04/11/2008

The GPL v3 Watch List is intended to give you a snapshot of the GPLv3/LGPLv3 adoption for April 4th through April 11th, 2008.

Tracking AGPL v3
This week we have incorporated the AGPL v3 projects we have found over the past months. We will continue to track this license to see how it progresses, seeing as it also has its fair share of controversy, much like the GPL v3. We have put the 55 AGPL v3 projects that we have found thus far into our system. We have also performed another audit on our database to take out any projects in error, so the numbers will be a little shorter than expected. In the last week we have also added 29 GPL v3 projects as well as 9 LGPL v3 projects. The AGPL has never been a large license, but since this version closes the ASP loophole, who some believe to be a flaw in the GPL v3, it is stirring up the community and may draw more adopters than its previous versions. Additionally, for those of you looking for a public forum to announce your next project version, check out our reader contributions regularly under "User Updates" herein.

This Week:

• New Projects
• Lucky Number 13 - Affero GPLv3 and interpreting Section 13
• AGPL v3 and the Google Code Repository
• User Updates

New project conversions this week include:

• CiviCRM: CiviCRM is an open source and freely downloadable constituent relationship management solution.
• Clipperz Community Edition: Clipperz Community Edition allows you to host on your own server a web service identical to Clipperz online password manager.
• eyeOS: an Open Source Platform designed to hold a wide variety of Web Applications over it.
• Funambol: Mobile 2.0 messaging, powered by open source.
• picoplog: Picoplog is a minimalistic photoblogging tool. Picoplog's major strength is its simplicity: posting a photo is done by just uploading it to your web space.
  

Lucky Number 13 - Affero GPLv3 and interpreting Section 13
"Software as a Service" (SaaS) and "remote network interaction" are the latest catchphrases in software distribution. What's different, though, is that a "distribution" of code is not really taking place in these situations. At least not in the sense of an entire application being downloaded to a user's machine before being installed and used. The GNU Affero GPL version 3 (AGPLv3) was created in order to address this particular usage/interaction model.

The AGPLv3 has substantially the same license terms as the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) with the exception of Section 13, which deals with remote network interaction and the use of AGPLv3-licensed code with GPLv3-licensed code. We will limit this discussion to the remote network interaction portion of that section.

The majority of the "copyleft" power of the GPLv3, and consequently the AGPLv3 is the automatic application of its license terms to downstream recipients to whom a copy of the licensed source code has been "conveyed." The GPL/AGPL define convey as:

To "convey" a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies. Mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not conveying.

What is interesting is that the sharing of source code as stated in Section 13 of the AGPLv3 is not based on this definition of "convey." Instead, it appears to give users a new right to an opportunity to receive such source code if such source code is 1) modified; and 2) users interact with it over a computer network (if the modified version supports such interaction):

Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copying of software.

The Free Software Foundation has clarified what it means to "interact with [the software] remotely through a computer network" on its FAQ for the GPL:

If the program is expressly designed to accept user requests and send responses over a network, then it meets these criteria. Common examples of programs that would fall into this category include web and mail servers, interactive web-based applications, and servers for games that are played online.

If a program is not expressly designed to interact with a user through a network, but is being run in an environment where it happens to do so, then it does not fall into this category. For example, an application is not required to provide source merely because the user is running it over SSH, or a remote X session.

So it appears that, in a SaaS arrangement, if a developer modifies the underlying AGPL-licensed source code for the program that the opportunity to receive such source code must be prominently offered to all users who interact with the program remotely over a computer network. Since the requirement that a developer prominently offer such users this opportunity is not based on "conveying" the program's source code, it also appears that if a developer merely uses an existing program without modification that the requirement to prominently offer to users the opportunity to receive the original source code does not exist.It will be interesting to see how SaaS developers, vendors, users and others actually interpret and use these provisions in the AGPLv3 as the license is adopted and used.

-Kevin Howard

References:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AGPLv3InteractingRemotely
http://egofood.blogspot.com/2008/03/updates-soc-orgs-selected-funabol-ceo.html


AGPL v3 and the Google Code Repository
Since the release of the AGPL v3 in November, there has been some head butting with some members of the open source community and those who run the Google Code repository. Closing the ASP loophole, some say, threatens the business model that Google was built on. By closing the loophole, if Google wanted to use a project under the AGPL v3, they would have to release any changes they make to the code for use as a service as well as distribution.

*************************************************************************
"Makes perfect sense (that Google does not support the AGPL v3) , really. Google has made bazillions of dollars using free software in their backend without having to release any of their modifications back into the world. Something like the AGPL which requires server-side modifications to also be released is a direct threat to their way of doing business. Refusing to add AGPL to the list of open source licenses on Google Code to help promote is unsurprising, and in fact expected."

-Russel Beattie
*************************************************************************

However, the staff at the Google Code repository is taking a considered approach to managing the various projects hosted there and their associated licenses. One method of doing this is not hosting projects with code licensed under every new OSS license that is released. If they hosted projects under every new custom license that maintainers submitted there would eventually be a glut of dead projects with unusable licensing terms, a condition unfortunately too common at existing popular FOSS repositories. They recognize and address the fact that new licenses need time to be put into practice and used before they are more fully understood and worthy of support. The AGPL contains new terms that deal with a new software usage model, so from the perspective of the Research Team, Google Code is merely proceeding cautiously.

*************************************************************************
"Basically the answer is when I (Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.), Fitz, Greg or the team think it is popular enough. I know you guys think we don't like it for nefarious reasons, but what you're missing is we dislike -all- new licenses that
are unpopular. They lead to bifurcation of the open source development
world and that is a high price to pay.

I (Chris DiBona) personally think the AGPL is deeply flawed, and I've commented on
that on my own blog and on others, but that really -doesn't- matter.
If the AGPL gets to be popular, like lgpl or bsd popular, than we'll
certainly offer it as an option on code.google.com, but until then,
it'll be a judgment call on our part. One you might not agree on, but
that's okay."

-Chris DiBona
*************************************************************************

We are not going to choose sides in this debate, but what we will do is provide unbiased AGPL v3 adoption numbers to help resolve this issue. Both sides have made their points, and hopefully our research will provide the necessary data to end this controversy.

References:
http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/google-hates-the-agpl-not-surprising
http://www.clipperz.com/users/marco/blog/2008/04/04/clipperz_not_welcome_google_code
http://groups.google.com/group/google-code-hosting/browse_thread/thread/1714c5c0ef5d9f9f/7d59a938d295bb8f


User Contributions
Our database is partly maintained by our team of researchers as well by the contributions that are received from the community. We have received email contributions to our R&D Group email (rdgroup@palamida.com) of projects moving to the AGPL v3 license. Here are the two contributions we received last week:

******************************************************************************************
Picoplog "Dear Palamida researchers,
I'd like to inform you of another project that is using the AGPL. It's a photoblogging tool, its name is Picoplog. http://daubau.it/picoplog/

Like many others, we chose the AGPL because we're aware of the infamous "ASP loophole". We don't like companies bypassing the spirit of the GPL in that way."

Description:
Picoplog is a minimalistic photoblogging tool. Picoplog's major strength is its simplicity: posting a photo is done by just uploading it to your web space.

Newest Release:
Picoplog 0.9.1 Alpha - Released on March, 29 2008

******************************************************************************************
Clipperz Community Edition
"Hi, I would like to inform you that Clipperz Community Edition has been recently released under an AGPL license. Clipperz is a web-based password manager. Learn more here: http://www.clipperz.com/. "

Description:
You can think of Clipperz as your web Rolodex, a card index where you can enter any sort of confidential data without worrying about security. It can be used to store and freely organize passwords, confidential notes, burglar alarm codes, credit and debit card details, PINs, software keys, …

Clipperz does solve the “password fatigue” and make the Internet the most convenient and safe place to store private and sensitive data. However since passwords are the most common type of sensitive information that you need to protect, we added a lot of functionalities to make Clipperz the best online password manager.

Newest Release:
Clipperz Community Edition, version revision 003 is available from SourceForge.net.

*************************************************************************

We appreciate all the contributions that have been made, either through our form on our web page or by email, and we also like to hear why you are changing your project's license as in the email above. It gives us more insight into which direction license trends are moving. We will continue to post up user contributions to our blog each week, and we may quote parts of your emails. If you wish the email to remain private, just mention so and we will not disclose any part of it.

Much Appreciated,

Palamida R&D Group


Notable Mention
Palamida actively takes submissions from visitors on updates on new GPL v3/LGPL 3 projects. We are amazed at the number of submissions we have gotten to date, but even more so, we are incredibly grateful to the almost 100 core contributors who have devoted their time and resources at helping us provide up-to-date information.

GPL Project Watch List for the Week of 04/04/08

The GPL v3 Watch List is intended to give you a snapshot of the GPLv3/LGPLv3 adoption for March 29th through April 4th, 2008.



Affero Being Added To Our Database

Just to get the usual updates out of the way, our GPL v3 count is now at 2131 GPL v3 projects in the first week of April and our LGPL v3 count is at 179 LGPL v3 projects. Soon to be added to our database will be the GNU Affero GPL v3, since there has been much talk about the new license recently. There have been requests for us to track the AGPL v3 and as of next week, our database will support the license. Our graphs will also be updated to reflect the adoption of the license. The AGPL v3 has already gained a moderate amount of popularity since it closes the ASP loophole.

************************************************

GPLv3 adoption surpassed 50% of projection
Nine months following the heralded official release of the GPLv3 licenses, and with the more recent addition of the Affero GPLv3, adoption has surpassed 50% of my projections. What seemed like completely optimistic FUD when I initially projected adoption numbers of 17,540 to reach a saturation point seems now more like just a matter of time for another 9,000 project releases to adopt the many GPLv3 variants.

Explained in detail, the amount of new FOSS projects has climbed nearly 20%, with a current inventory of almost 250,000 to choose from. The GPLv3 adoption rates are steady, when viewed with the current numbers. Therefore, based on this big inventory increase in the last seven months, adoption is strong at over 41%, but compared with the initial projections made on 8/13/07, GPLv3 adoption is over 50%, and well on its way to replace its GPL predecessors.

Where do we stand now . . .


For a little background on the development of the formula below, read this first (http://gpl3.blogspot.com/2007/07/gplv3-overwhelming-support-if-you-know.html).

• Total repository based OSS community: 248,404 (SF total 173,883 as of 4/05/08 times 70%) 39,962 increase since 8/13/07


• Estimated Total active Projects: 37,260 (4/05/08 total multiplied by 15%) 6,034 increase since 8/13/07


• Total active GPL: 30,925 (4/05/08 total active, multiplied by 77% GPL and 6% LGPL) 5,008 increase since 8/13/07


• Estimated total GPLv3 conversion, including "or later": 22,266 (4/05/08 total active, divided by 72% estimated conversion rate) 3,606 increase since 8/13/07


• Estimated current "or later" impact: 15,462 (50% of 4/05/08 GPL) 2,504 increase since 8/13/07

Therefore:

• GPLv3 – 9045 (GPLv3, LGPLv3 and all "or later') of 20,930 projected – 41% (GPL conversion divided by 94%)


• LGPLv3 – 179 of 1335 projected – 13% (GPL conversion divided by 6%)


• Or later – 6735 of 15,462 projected – 43%


• GPL, not converted – 6234 projected (GPLv3 converted projects multiplied by (100% - 72% convert rate))


• Active Non GPL license – 6335 projected (Active projects – Active GPL projects)

But wait, here is the interesting thing . . .
If we adjust the percentages to correct for the growth in the size of the OSS projects currently available, we see a more interesting trend.

19% overall increase in current FOSS projects:

Therefore, adjusted for time:

• GPLv3 – 9045 (GPLv3, LGPLv3 and all "or later') of 17,540 8/13/07 projected – 52% (GPL conversion divided by 94%) (3390 additional projected as of 4/05/08)
• LGPLv3 – 179 of 1119 8/13/07 projected – 16% (GPL conversion divided by 6%) (216 additional projected as of 4/05/08)
• Or later – 6735 of 12,958 8/13/07 projected – 52% (2504 additional projected as of 4/05/08)

References:
http://gpl3.blogspot.com/2007/08/gplv3-past-5k-mark-and-going-strong.html
http://asay.blogspot.com/2005/09/analyst-nature-and-size-of-open-source.html
http://gpl3.blogspot.com/2008/03/gpl-project-watch-list-for-week-of-0321.html
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9744527-16.html?part=rss&subj=TheOpenRoad
http://www.linux.com/articles/61432
http://gpl3.blogspot.com/2007/07/gplv3-overwhelming-support-if-you-know.html
http://sourceforge.net/

- Ernest Park
The Research Group

*****************************************************


Yes, we did say 5000 GPLv3 Projects
We made a big prediction a few weeks ago (http://gpl3.blogspot.com/2008/03/gpl-project-watch-list-for-week-of-0321.html). If adoption rate continued from this point at 1000 every 4 months unchanged, we would surpass 4000 easily, and adoption rates will. To break it down more, at around 55 per week, 38 weeks remained in the year from this point. This means that if adoption rates remained constant, we would see 2090 more adopted project releases, totaling 4277. How much of a stretch was it to expect the possibility of another 723 project adoptions?
If adoptions increased to 14 per day until the end of the year, up from over 11 at the time of this writing, and two weeks at 20 per day, we would surpass 5000. With an overall growth in the FOSS software inventory of nearly 20% in seven months, an expectation of growth in the daily rate of adoption is both reasonable, and historically accurate.

- Ernest Park
The Research Group

************************************************

GNU Affero General Public License version 3 Update
Affero Adoptions
Within the course of this next week, we will now have Affero fully integrated into our statistics, and will adjust our historic public statistics to reflect the update.

As of today, we have 42 new Affero adoptions:

1. 3rd-space


2. AJAX Chat


3. allocPSA


4. Baifox


5. beendoin


6. Bugzilla plugin for rbot


7. CiviCRM


8. dotmac


9. eastwood


10. EIRPG


11. eyeOS


12. Eyes Of Lynx


13. freeside


14. Funambol


15. GNU Herds


16. Hunspell plugin for rbot


17. hyperdump


18. Infonomix


19. ItsNat


20. jPOS


21. Liquid War


22. LogiLogi.org Gallery Generator


23. MyTab


24. OgOg


25. OSN


26. P4A


27. Partystic Sheets


28. Passiflora Project


29. Pbooks


30. plutext-server


31. Poliglota


32. ProcessMaker OSS


33. sovix


34. speedzilla


35. stet


36. Tine 2.0


37. Tournament Pool and Bracket Tracker


38. Veasy


39. WaveMaker Visual Ajax Studio


40. Web nutritiion


41. Wikidot


42. yanunca (yet another nutrition calcluator)
    

Software developers with a pending Affero release, please tell us about it. Send us the name of the project, a detailed description, the URL to th bits, and please tell us why you chose Affero. We will highlight your project in a way to inform our readers about who is using Affero and why.

- Staff

The Research Group

**********************************************

What they are saying about Affero GPL v3

• FSF Approves Affero GPL for SaaS Apps. By providing for situations in which software is accessible for use over a network, the new license reflects the growing trend toward Software as a Service (SaaS).http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/60414.html


• Will the GPL be overtaken by AGPL? As the software industry increasingly moves to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, Fabrizio Capobianco of Funambol writes, the AGPL's closing of the "ASP loophole" will become a vital protection for software users.http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2133


• The GPL Has No (Networked) Future. From a purely practical standpoint, including Affero could have seriously damaged the popularity of open software for web applications; possibly driving people to .NET where no such giveback provisions exist. http://www.linux-mag.com/id/3017/


• AGPL is OSI approved. Sweet victory.Now we just need developers to understand that using GPL v3 instead of AGPL v3 is just dumb. Your software is going to be used as a service, if not today, in a few years. Yes, YOUR software. http://www.funambol.com/blog/capo/2008/03/agpl-is-osi-approved-sweet-victory.html


• Open Source Licenses Gone Wild! GPL3 Affero is HereThere are relatively few open source projects using Affero today, but that number is sure to grow. http://tr_1207330531151/=99


• Affero: A new GPL for software as a service. The Affero GPL license is increasingly relevant as companies such as Google employ customized open-source software to run massive online businesses with no requirement for sharing.http://tr_1207330531146/_3-9820397-39.html?%5E$


• GNU Affero GPL version 3 and the "ASP loophole". I think the GNU Affero GPL version 3 license walks a firm middle ground, and I would like to see it tested in the marketplace of ideas and commerce.http://tr_1207330531156//152


• Final version of GPL Affero license is out. The Free Software Foundation, emphasized in a statement that the new license is not based on the previous Affero license, but on the GPL v. 3 released a few months ago. http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1698


• Closing the ASP Loophole? AGPL v3Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, an open source mobile software company, sounded encouraged with the lastest developments with the AGPL v3 (GNU Affero GPL). http://opensourcecommunity.org/2007/06/01/closing-asp-loophole-agpl-v3


• A cure for the "cancer within open source": the OSI approves the Affero GPL. One of open source's biggest failings has been to extend its relevance into the Software as a Service world. The OSI has finally corrected this with the approval of the Affero GPL. http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9894155-16.html
  
  

- Antony Tran

The Research Group

*************************************************

Story of the week

OpenOffice.org and the LGPLv3
Last month OpenOffice.org announced that the code for the OpenOffice.org office suite will be released under the Lesser General Public License version 3 (LGPLv3) later this year, beginning with the beta of OpenOffice.org 3.0.

It appears that protection from software patents was a major motivator for this change to the LGPLv3. The LGPLv3 incorporates almost all of the terms of the GPLv3, which includes strong language that requires contributors to grant a license for any patents that may apply to their contribution or else not contribute at all. This protects the OpenOffice.org codebase from any patent claims against it.

The widespread use and distribution of the OpenOffice.org suite via both its inclusion with a number of Linux distributions as well as direct download from the OpenOffice.org web site should engender a level of confidence in the new version 3 of the LGPL and may help increase the adoption rate of that license for other projects.

This move to the LGPLv3 should be a positive thing, a vote of confidence and good news for the Free Software Foundation's new licenses and the open source community in general. The more projects that use widely accepted licenses instead of customized proprietary ones, the better. Wide acceptance leads to a common understanding of terms and expectations for both developers and users.

Note: Here is a look at estimated marketshare worldwide of OpenOffice.

• http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Market_Share_Analysis?cid=923666
• http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Major_OpenOffice.org_Deployments

References:http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=355

- Kevin Howard
The Research Group



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