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iPhone SDK and Free Software Don't Match
kookjr writes "Are you planning to develop software for the iPhone? If you want to develop Free Software, Linux.com (Shares corp overlord w/ Slashdot) has a good review of the conflicts between Apple's Registered iPhone Developer Agreement and licenses like the GPL. This is important for people who may not read all the agreements they click Agree to."
companies are issuing SDKs and don't tell you what license is actually compatible in a common sense, non-legalese way?
:)
It seems only logical that this should fall in the 'system requirements' type category of the install documentation...
Sure, when you start your car there is no beeping alarm and a warning sign to use ONLY unleaded gas, but then they go to extra efforts to warn you at the gas fill spot, and make the neck of the gas fill tube so that only unleaded fuel and siphon hoses will fit.
This license thing is like letting you believe you can pour diesel fuel right on in the tank, no worries.
I like car analogies
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People should really read what they agree to but of course they don't most of the time. Of course, the /. crowd as a whole probably does so far more than most demographics.
/.ers to RTFA (not just this one, but any FA) is any example to go on, then it's a completely hopeless situation...
And if the ability of
This guy's the limit!
It might be considered a surprise considering you can release your software for free (as in beer). But you can't really release the source for free (as in speech) under a GPL.
If want to release "free" software, it's hard to believe you have to do so restrictively.
Because there's a lot of GPL software out there, and people are going to want to run it on their devices. If a device cannot legally run GPL software, that's a really good reason not to get that device.
You're right that the GPL doesn't strive for great compatibility with other license. It strives to be the most free. Sometimes that causes problems with proprietary systems. It's not the GPLs fault that it can't be compatible with licenses that remove your freedoms.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Developers: We can use your help.
- Code signing - this conflicts with GPLv3's "anti-Tivoization" clause. As others posted, both sides will see this as a feature, not a bug.
- It's not "free". This is true; much as you cannot download the Tivo source code and have it compile and work on your Tivo, you cannot just download available source code and run it on your iPhone. This goes back to the signing issues above.
- NDA provisions. I'm willing to bet this is purely during the beta period. All of Apple's other tools, documentation, etc are freely available, and I expect this will continue once it is released. After all, signing up for this program gives access to beta software (the iPhone firmware 2.0), and Apple similarly restricts access to OS X and other beta software. Once it's final, these restrictions are lifted.
Ultimately, this all boils down to code signing and what you think of it. The problems presented by this are fairly specific to GPLv3; anyone is free to distribute their code under (for example) the MIT/BSD license, or even GPLv2.As for GPLv3 it's far from widespread, and with prominent projects such as the Linux kernel avoiding it, I'm not sure how much traction it will gain over GPLv2. Much like Windows Vista has to compete with XP, GPLv3 has to compete with GPLv2.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
[The GPL] strives to be the most free.
Not quite. It strives to stay free. Most people consider BSD-licensed code to be more free than GPL-licensed code, simply because there are fewer restrictions.
I'm not commenting on whether "being more free" or "staying free" is "better" (whatever that might mean in this context), simply that there's a difference.
"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe
I keep getting asked if I'll port SimCity (Micropolis) to the iPhone.
Now I know the answer: NO! Because it's licensed under GPL 3.
It's a lot easier to port software to the Windows CE on the PocketPC, anyway. And then I can give it away for free, instead of charging for it and forking over money to Apple.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
There are three points of contention:
(1) You must have your application signed before it will run on any cell phone,
(2) Your application must be delivered via the Apple iTunes store, and
(3) Your usage of the beta version of Apple's development kit subjects you to an NDA.
Well, the NDA part of the beta program struck me as a little odd, as it takes about no effort for any idiot to sign up and download the SDK for free--however, this seems to be a standard tactic by Apple for all its beta SDKs. The NDA will be gone, however, by the time the SDK is out of beta--so the whole "you must sign an NDA and that is incompatible with the GPL" thing will be gone by summer.
So what is left is the fact that you have to sign your application before it will run on the iPhone.
As someone who has written cell phone software before, I can tell you that Symbian and Windows Mobile also require application signing before allowing your programs to run on their platforms. It's very common in the cell phone industry to use certificate signing--and at $99/year, Apple is the cheapest to obtain a signing key. Further, from the sounds of it, by the time the SDK goes out of beta, anyone with $99 can get a signing key and sign as many apps as he wishes. (By contrast, for Windows Mobile you pay VeriSign $350 for 10 signing events, meaning you can only sign 10 applications or different versions of the same application. (Actually a signing event means you sign one executable.) Symbian is even more of a pain in the neck. And let's not talk about Android until real Android-based phones start showing up on the market and we learn what sort of package signing requirements the cell phone manufacturers impose on Android applications.
While I appreciate the need for authors to fill column space in order to get paid, it seems to be a little early to start complaining about GPL incompatibility and pointing the fingers solely at Apple because you're too lazy to compare and contrast with the other mobile operating systems out there.
I have great respect for the FSF and the goals they are trying to accomplish but when I see claims like, "But the result still would not qualify as free software, since no one could alter your source code and run the modified result on their phone," it irks me.
More accurately it would not meet the FSF's definition of free software. I would call freely released source code that I could load into the iphone simulator (or with $99 an iphone itself) free software. But whether or not you agree with my usage of the term isn't the point. 'Free software' is a term like 'free country.' It's part of the language and no one entity can dictate it's meaning just because it thinks that is what the term should mean.
To be clear I have no dispute with the FSF. Just as various activist groups might offer their own definitions of free countries that differ so too is it reasonable for the FSF to offer their own definition of free software and to try to convince us it is the correct one. However, journalistic pieces like the one at linux.com shouldn't assume that the FSF can define by fiat what words in our language mean. Instead they should tell us that this would not qualify as free software under the FSF definition.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
we can still jailbreak, and there's no reason we can't continue to develop free software with the community toolchain.
+++ATH0
There are other hardware manufacturers. So if you don't like the terms required to support the iPhone, then help out the GPL compatible alternatives instead (eg. Nokia N810)..
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Yes, I can seriously argue that. Especially because it isn't that you can't remove the freedoms of others, it's that you must grant a set of freedoms to others. The work that goes into a derived work does not have some platonic natural state of being free for all others to use, it is imposed by the source GPL work.
The 13th amendment DOES make you less free in some aspects. You are not free to own slaves. Less freedom. That's the end of it. Now, it makes any potential slave much, MUCH more free in some other aspects (and I get that in this analogy, everybody is a slave -- but also in this analogy the slaves can have slaves, so it still holds), and it is overall a good thing, but "good" and "free" are not synonyms. Just because the 13th amendment is absolutely a good thing doesn't mean that it isn't a restriction of your freedoms.
The Total FUD: It only affects SOME Free liscences. Even if the APIs are confidential, this does NOT stop BSD code, but only viral liscences like GPL.
The GPL quite clearly says that the OS can be under whatever license it wants to be. GPL'ed software runs on SunOS, Solaris, Windows, AIX, Symbian, and lots of other systems with weird licenses. GPL software does not infect software that isn't derived from it in some way.
The problem here is that Apple is trying to be viral and infect software that they did not develop. The GPLv3 just says that it won't allow itself to be infected by viral corporate licenses.
I've owned about a dozen Macs over the years. I'm so pissed of about Apple's recent bullshit that I'm not going to buy another Apple product until they change or hell freezes over.
I've seen a lot of tech demos. I've seen alot of prototypes. And yet, the iPhone for all of its closed terrible-ness is the most advanced piece of technology I've ever seen- and it gets better... I own one. Its in my hand. I use it every day. This isn't something we drool over and fantasize about owning some day, this is extremely attainable.
The point is that while I am a FSF and EFF supporter, GPL still doesn't deliver with jaw-dropping results. Apple does. The open movement was created largely in response to advanced technology being kept out-of-reach of average consumers ($5000/seat UNIX comes to mind) largely out of ignorance on the part of the companies developing the software.
Today, we have Apple solidly delivering to the consumer what many are calling *the* next platform, and the GPL community is throwing stones. Meanwhile Android has failed to be more than 'cute' and certainly nothing to write home about.
Finally, the GPL community needs to gain perspective. Would it be nice to have a few GPL projects one iPhone? Sure. Will I miss their absence? Not a chance. This is *not* a desktop, this is a digital prosthetic. If the FSF is hoping to pressure Apple to change policy, stop now. Instead look at changing GPL to accommodate a company that is (in its own way) delivering on the goals that FSF was created to accomplish.
The license I choose as an author is binding on everyone else, not me. It's my code, I still own the original copyright, and I can do whatever the hell I want.
There's nothing stopping me from releasing it under the GPL with an exception addendum to account for the iPhone code signing requirements. So if you modify my app and distribute it, you still have to comply with the GPL except for distributing a code signing key to make it work on real hardware.
This