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iCommune Retools Itself as Standalone Open Source App
Doctor Beavis writes "As noted previously, Apple ordered developer James Speth to return his iTunes software developer kit and to stop distributing the iCommune plug-in for iTunes. Today, CNET has a story with further details and developments. Speth said that he will honor Apple's request to stop distributing his software, but he will build the same features into a standalone application. The next version of iCommune will work with iTunes and potentially other digital music players and will use Rendezvous, Apple's implementation of a protocol for automatic discovery of network-connected devices. Speth also said that the new version will be Open Source under the GPL."
Ten bucks says Apple releases their own P2P audio sharing utility in like 2 weeks using this guy's old code.
Well, I doubt they'll use his code (they aren't that stupid, only Micro$oft has balls that big!), but Steve did demonstrate the same functionality when he introduced Rendezvous, so it's likely that the feature has been planned for a future version of iTunes for quite some time. This guy just beat Apple to the punch.
But I don't think that's why Apple has gone all swarm-of-lawyers on this poor guy, tho.
Remember the hubbub over "Rip. Mix. Burn."? Apple is walking a tightrope right now with the RIAA, trying to allow their users to make maximum use of their legally-owned music with a minimum of RIAA-mandated cruft, while also avoiding the RIAA's crosshairs. Allowing this third-part developer to mod iTunes just might upset the balance, and get Apple in serious hot water.
So, yes, you'll see this functionality in the next rev of iTunes. But you can be sure, too, that it'll have some limitations built in (like the iPod's one-way syncing) to keep the RIAA stormtroopers out of the yard.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Both AppleEvents and Rendezvous have published API's that don't have (to my knowledge) restrictions on their use.
Go Badgers! -- #include "std/disclaimer.h"
uh... not really. they're just limiting the capability to streaming, and the scope to Rendezvous (zeroconf) networks, so it's a local area network thing.
DRM usually implies that a piece of "content" can have specific licensing restrictions that are enforced digitally on a granular basis (not across the board). there's nothing DRM about what apple's doing with iTunes at all...
Just raise the taxes on crack.
XDarwin is open source. Aqua is not.
I think you mean Darwin is open source. XDarwin is the darwin-compatible version of XFree86, and while it is open-source, it's not part of the standard OS X dist (though it may be soon, apple X11 beta IS XDarwin, and may be standard soon enough).
But Darwin is the opensoruce core of osx. Not XDarwin.
So, their window manager is not, that doesn't mean the OS isn't.
OS X isn't. Darwin is. OS X has a whole lot of closed source stuff besides the WindowServer.
Your concern would make sense if the application were implementing the Rendezvous interface raw, but it's not, anymore than Mozilla implements its own TCP/IP stack. Jaguar provides a very nice set of classes to establish and manage Rendezvous services, and I'm sure that the new version of iCommune, just like the old version and like all Rendezvous-enabled apps, will make use of Apple's frameworks. So even if Apple completely overhauled their IETF-standard protocol (bloody unlikely) they'd have to also completely overhaul the Rendezvous portion of Cocoa and not document the changes in their SDK. I think that iCommune is safe.
iCommune violated the terms of the SDK, plain and simple. Apple was well within their rights to tell them to C&D both with the BSD license, and their license on the SDK.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
If you accept the APSL as "free", then you can go and use Apple's implementation:
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/rendezv ous/
You should especially not download it from here.
I think that the iCommune peeps should have given up while they were only marginally behind. They produced some extension to Apple's product, and Apple deemed it to be illegal so they sent a C+D and asked for their SDK back.
There's a rather large difference between something that's illegal and a violation of a contract (which is civil, BTW). However, you've missed that difference. Apple was right to take away his SDK, because he was producing software that they deemed violated his license agreement -- and they had every right to do so. However, they have no say in the legality of a developer's software.
So the iCommune peeps decide that they're going to rewrite some software to do the same thing (give or take some added extras), release it under the same name only this time it'll be GPL'd. So the headlines in the popular techpress go from Apple tells author of small software plug-in to stop distributing to GNU Public software breaks Apple copyright, violates trademark.
Wrong again. As long as the software doesn't use copyrighted code (which I assume is the case, otherwise he'd have to be an idiot to be publicizing this), he's not violated anything. It also does not violate a trademark -- or do you think iApple igets irights ito ieverything ithat ibegins iwith ithe iletter i'I'? Moreover, he is not breaking the terms of his SDK any longer, as the contract is broken and no longer has any binding force on him. Apple doesn't have any legal say in what people develop independently (though they can make their lives difficult, of course.)
This won't be good for FS/OSS publicity as the public will perceive GPL authors (they read:entire OSS lot) as a group of lawbreaking Communist zealots who flout C+D notices issued by hard-working companies just trynig to make a buck in today's world.
Actually, your post does less good, because you're spreading a lot of unnecessary FUD. Your painted picture of 'Communist zealots' versus 'hard-working companies' is touching, but hardly appropriate (and generally untrue, from my experience.) And for crying out loud, have you forgotten that this plugin has potential LEGAL uses for users, like sharing files on a home network without digging through shared folders and bothering with re-importing?
Remember: the clueless person on the street doesn't see the problem with laws like the DMCA; they think it's just protection (try and explain to someone that it nearly made the marker pen an illegal tool).
Remember: the clueless poster that equates innovation with infringement doesn't see the problem with the entertainment industry's rhetoric; they think it's just protection (try and explain to someone that it's illegal to share MP3s, yet companies encouraged us to share audio tapes ten years ago.)
got standards? --- http://www.w3.org/
Don't forget that Jobs is so far up Disney's ass he only sees daylight when the Mouse yawns...
(slightly off the original topic, yes, but whatever)
Up Disney's ass?
Get your facts straight... Jobs was lauded for standing *up* to Disney after Toy Story's succes, and getting a new contract for the split of future revenues. You'll probably see Pixar go it alone after their 5 movie deal is up, much to the financially shaky Disney's dismay.
Trust me, there's no love lost between those two.
As for Apple absorbing public hacks into their OS's, I won't pick a fight with you there.
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"Never Attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity..."
Not exactly the same thing, but you might take a look at Andromeda which (along with Apache/PHP) lets you stream your MP3/OGG/etc collection. I made Andromeda, so sorry about the self-plug, but I do have a bunch of OS X'ers running it. Also, I do charge for Andromeda (it's my job). Anyways, I hope you check it out... -Scott
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
No, it is written in C, perhaps with some AppleScript. There is a third-party indexer on that page, written in Perl. iCommune never actually serves the MP3s, it just writes an index of the MP3s and configures Apache to serve them; so a third-party indexer can write the index, and a user can configure his own Apache server, without needing iCommune to do it. In this way you can either avoid having iCommune do it on your Mac OS X box for some reason, or have some non-Mac OS X box (e.g., Linux) act as server. iCommune came with a Python indexer, but I wanted one in Perl (easier to add to it and modify it, for me), so I wrote that one.