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Al Gore Goes "Open Source"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sad-publicity-in-politics dept.

Mike@ABC writes "Can a web site be open source? Al Gore says so, and the man did create the Internet, after all. Gore is looking for people to contribute code for his presidential campaign site. The page says: "This is your web site -- IT'S OPEN SOURCE -- and I want you to help us build it." " They even have a cute little "Gore 2000 Logo" for officially approved "Gore 2000 Merchandise". And Tipper has her own section! Funniest thing I've seen all morning. I wonder if this will meet the open source requirements.

1 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. What is Open Source by jpranevich · · Score: 5
    Hello,

    This is definately one of the funniest things that I've seen all week. Some days, I really think Al Gore would be better off working the Funny Bone chain than the Presidental campaign circuit. But that's just me.

    So, let's take a look at this web site and see how it ranks as open source? That could be fun...

    The Freedom to run the program for any purpose.
    Hmm. Can we use his website as something other than what it is intended? Can we in fact copy his web page source and make a similar page decrying his ideals and misunderstanding of the world? We can certainly try... I wonder what his lawyers would say? Please note that his copyright statement on that page does explicitly state that they reserve all rights and do not grant any particular license for alternate usage.

    The Freedom to stucy how it works.
    Well, we can do that. But that's the beauty behind the web: you can always do that.

    The Freedom to redistribute copies.
    This is a toughie. International law does saw that it is always legal to cache copies of web pages in your browser (or other means) in order to view a page. But that does not apply to print media and the definition of open source does not include any specific qualifications for what means source may be distributed. (Even if it is silly to print out all that code.) Again I point to the fact that they suggest that all rights are reserved.

    The Freedom to improve code and release it to the public.
    Well, Al Gore certainly wants you to improve his code. But take a look, his implied license states only that you may submit your changes to him (his employees). This violates the spirit of free software by not allowing your changes to be circulated without the consent of a third party. If no part of this farse is wrong but this one, this would truly be funny. The free software guidelines explicitly state: "If you do publish your changes, you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way." I can't see a more blatant misuse of the "Open Source" trademark than a person or organization who breaks this most important of rules.

    Irrevocable Freedoms
    The free software guidelines states that software that is distributed free may not have cluuses or otherwise which would cause you to have your license revoked without cause. We can not explicitly state whether AL Gore violates this practice but we can point out that we don't even know the full text of the source license until after we submit changes: If Gore 2000 selects your material for use on our website we will contact you with further legal requirements.

    All in all, I highly recommend that everyone send mail to Gore 2000 explining to them this misuse of the "Open Source" trademark. A good place to start would be legalteam@algore2000.com or sourcecodevolunteers@algore2000.com.

    This kind of blatant misuse of the open source philosophy should not go, in my opinion, without the thundering reminders of many many voting-age open sourceists in the email boxes of those who seek to rape our most sacred of ideologies. Joe