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Corel Sticking to Closed Source Beta Test?
Tro^ble sent us an article over at ZD Net that talks about the recent
Corel Fiasco that was originally
covered by us yesterday. The major point is that they seem to be trying to stick to the non GPL license claiming that the release is "Beta" and therefore "Internal" so it doesn't violate anything. Insert irritated remarks here.
It is more than likely that ZD is trying to jump on the publicity bandwagon discovered by Slashdot readers, and is merely pouring gasoline on the fire.
It would be useful for developers to complain about abuses of their code; for advokiddies too gripe about this is a waste of bits...
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
As someone who said, "hey, that's clever!" upon first examining the GPL (in fact it was on a Windows program, I'd only read one other license more than a little, enough to convince me that basically anything you did after opening the shrinkwrap could be construed to violate it) I have to say that this is entirely false.
/. readers are embroiled in a Holy War: "The GPL forces you to make all your modifications public!!" "No it doesn't you [expletive deleted] dimwit, you can make unreleased modifications for *INTERNAL USE ONLY*!" Both of these claims are partially based in fact. The GPL **DOES REQUIRE** that all rights, including the right of free modification and redistribution, are transferred with the software. This has nothing to do with internal or external distribution. I quote: :-) [ note: I'm over my head. But wouldn't I technically be violating the copyright of commercial software if I stumbled on a CD like that?)
What the GPL states is that *if* you distribute the software, or any modifications thereof, you *must* transfer all rights which you received to the recipient. Period. No exceptions unless you are yourself the copyright holder.
This confusion probably originates from the claim and counterclaim often heard when
4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under the License...
However, the second claim also contains a grain of truth! While the GPL does require a complete transferrence of rights, it *DOES NOT* require you to transfer those rights to the world at large. Of course, distribution is difficult (to say the least) to control once it's gone beyond, say, a small development team under contract to you -- but technically, if I give Joe the software, Mary does not have the right to use it until either Joe or I give it to her. Most GPLed programs are provided for anyone to download, so this doesn't come into play much. But unless I have entirely misread the license, this is how things -- technically -- work. Unless the legal system is more intelligent than I thought, and can deduce that placing something under the GPL probably means that finding a CD lying by the side of the road is a perfectly valid way to get a hold of it.
Anyway -- this is all irrelevant since this is clearly not internal distribution. And even if it is, it's clearly a dumb thing to do from the point of view of playing nice; in fact, Corel *taken as a whole* is probably not this dumb. See technocrat.net for a furious posting from an insider about how this decision was (or wasn't) made.
Daniel
Hurry up and jump on the individualist bandwagon!
The reason they might want to try this is very simple - very large sums of money are at stake. Sudden release of a new version of Linux after hidden development serves several purposes. First they get more publicity and excitement over their changes. Second they deprive other distributions of the ability to incrementally (gradually) review the changes and understand them. The issue here is the ability to provide support, not merely copy the disks.
In other words this is an issue of corporate strategy. If they pull this off, then their release will be much more newsworthy, and it is one of the few ways they might be able to make inroads against Red Hat. You can bet that Corel wants its distribution to be #1 after all. Their position in the Linux distribution food chain will directly translate into stock value, and if they dethroned Red Hat as number 1, their stock value would jump by orders of magnitude. Worst case scenario is the OSS community gets really riled up in arms and they pull back and say it was a mistake. Ooops - sorry about that we didn't mean it, let's make up.
Warning: maybe I'm overstepping my bounds by trying to speak for a large segment of the hacker community...
I think that I and many others in the hacker/OSS/Linux/whatever community are not at all pleased with the current business and legal climate that has produced Microsoft Corporation and all it's attendent shenanigans (like the Java suit and the anti-trust trial). Mind you, I don't think Microsoft itself is the source of the problem, merely a symptom of the society and business climate that produced it.
I'm tired of business-as-usual. I'm tired of bogus patents (which includes most software ones). I'm tired of lawsuits and lawyers. I definitely don't want to see the GPL tested in court.
What I want is for everyone involved to talk it over and work something out. I want everyone to get back to work (or whatever they enjoy doing). I want everyone involved with GPL'ed software to have respect for the GPL and the ideals behind it. If there is a conflict, I want people to create a solution that satisfies all parties. The spirit of hackerdom is sharing information and working/playing on cool stuff, not settling things in court.
I suppose lawsuits are necessary when things get too far out of hand and there is no other recourse. But often they are an incredible waste of time and money; not accomplishing a damn thing except to make some lawyers richer.
There were some good solutions posted above, I hope someone at Corel checks them out.
Well I got to talk to RMS today as he was here at the university, this issue came up and I asked him specifically about the contention that this is a beta and thus is not violating the GPL argument people have been making, his response:
``balderdash!''
Ethan
I'm somewhat shocked that a large portion of the slashdot community is obviously willing to abandon the GPL at the first sight of a problem. Let's check the facts here: Corel tries to sublicence GPL code from random OSS programmers to restrict its distribution, which is a clear violation of the licence under which the code has been made available to them in the first place.
There is no room for discussion here: Neither calling their distribution "beta" or the declaring the recipients as Corel internals has the slightest relevance here. (Even if a real Corel internal would give away e.g. an enhanced local version of gdb, never intended for publication, the best they could do is fire him but they could never sue him for licence violation.) Just imagine what Corel would do to you if you would publish an "internal beta release" of Corel Draw only differing from the original by a new installer and maybe a new packet format.
While I also thought at first that this might have been a mistake by some culeless lawyer who did a search-and-replace on some standard beta test licence, their own FAQ and the fact that they didn't give any response (let alone excuse) besides "this is being worked on" suggests that this is not the case.
Even if they do give in now (and I think they finally will), the impression will remain that they did so because of PR reasons and not because they felt themselves legally bound. Be sure that this precedent combined with the weak reaction of the community and the obvious lack of any serious (i.e. juristic) challenge of their licence violation will not go unnoticed, neither by other potential freeloaders nor by many OSS authors who might twice before they release their work under the GPL again.
The tragic (and somewhat ironic) point here is that Corel has not the slightest advantage from doing this. If they had restriced their licence to their own self developed products (installers, system management, etc.), they would have lost nothing: Nobody could give the whole thing away and with installers and management tools missing, a distribution is nothing more than a random collection of packages. (And most of them won't really differ from the Debian versions, anyway.)
They are saying that its internal, well let them keep it internal, dont go out and get other to test it. The term beta will soon be inbeded in a standard EULA and we will be seeing a Microsux linux coming out soon with enhancenments as tehy claim that their product is still in beta. EVEN after they are selling it at the stores.
.sigs suck, thus nothing here.
You know, I'd tend to agree, but...
The language that states that the whole thing is the property of Corel and not subject to other licenses is just flat out a violation of the GPL, no matter whether it's internal or not. Legally, (assuming the GPL is binding), they're prohibited from placing their own license on it. Period. What it's being used for is irrelevant.
I'm not even close to being a "GPL or Die!" kind of guy, and I thing people who demand Linux be called "GNU/Linux" are a little silly. However, a license is a license, and if Corel wants to use the software, they've got to abide by the license.
I know a lot of companies that only use Windows internally. Does that mean they don't need to license it from Microsoft? Can they just say they own it, and all the code to it, as long as they don't resell it? Of course not.
I'm not sure how Corel can figure they've got a right to do this.
I disagree strongly with Corel on this, actually.
A GPL license is supposed to follow a product everywhere it goes. Therefore, internal/external, released/unreleased, etc. has nothing to do with the GPL. The GPL is meant to guarantee that you will be able to freely distribute a product, and that source code will always be available.
You really can't make a license that obligates them to upload it to their FTP server. The GPL doesn't say "Said product must be uploaded to an FTP server." However, you cannot prosecute or sue someone for copying a GPL licensed product. Corel derived much of Corel Linux from GPL'd code. So making a copy of that code and giving it to whoever should be legal. Period.
Nuf said. I didn't get to rant about this yesterday, so I figured today was a good day.
Peace,
Barleyguy.
--- "So THAT's what an invisible barrier looks like!" - Time Bandits
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
If I agree with Corel (which I don't), and say that the distribution is to a select few for "internal" development, they are missing the point of GPL.
Beta testing is to find and remove bugs. An "internal" approach is not the most effective. The point of Open Source, is to let a large community debug and improve the product. Being the owner allows you to be the center point of development and support (where the money is).
I don't believe in Corel's "Open Source Spirit". If that was the case, then they would take the bennefits of Open Source, and use it.
Steven Rostedt
-- Nevermind
But a lot of the articles on /. come from ZDnet. So if they checked here before posting articles there and we checked there before posting articles here, well... the readerships of /. and ZDnet would trade places, for one thing, and no one would ever post anything!
Reminds me of that Greek guy... ZD-eno was it? :-)
----
We all take pink lemonade for granted.
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
Slash 0.4 anyone?
Three Step Plan:
1. Take over the world.
2. Get a lot of cookies.
3. Eat the cookies.
In order for the GPL to work, there can be no exceptions or exclusions. Being Beta cannot be a special case that bypasses the GPL.
Why not? Well say company XYZ develops a distribution/program/whatever that incorporates things under the GPL. Say they provide support or some great feature that you have to have. You ask company XYZ for it (since they have been talking about Open Source and such) and they say it is not publicly available yet, but you could pay N$ to become an official beta tester.
And if the product never comes out of beta, or you always need the next beta, then suddenly company XYZ is basically selling a product that should be under the GPL, but they are hiding behind the "beta" exception.
Any exception to the GPL that is allowed to stand will destroy the whole point of the GPL.
"Open source licensing: Who knew it could be so complicated? Definitely not Corel Corp."
Obviously.
"Some open source and Linux advocates are outraged that Corel's beta Linux distribution agreement violates the GNU Public License (GPL) in several respects."
Some?
"Some open source advocates argue though that since the Corel release is a beta, and not a public release, it can be considered "internal only," meaning the GPL does not apply."
Well, IANAL, but what the GPL applies to is distribution. I do not believe it makes a distinction between "internal" or "external". If they are going to give us a copy of their distro, they can't attach extra licensing stuff to it. We are not their employees, so even if the "select few" only get to see it, it's still distribution. How they bind down their employees from distributing modified GPL'ed stuff would be a much more interesting topic to explore, in my opinion.
" "As we've stated on previous occasions, Corel has every intention of honoring the GNU GPL obligations once we begin distribution of Corel Linux later this year..." "
So, you can honor it when you want to honor it? I think your view is a little "off".
" "...This beta testing program for Linux, however, does not signal the commencement of the distribution of Corel Linux, but rather the contracting of third party testing services..." "
Hmm. Distribution: 1. to give out in shares 2. to spread out.. This sounds a little like distribution. They "give out" copies of the program? Whether or not you are contracting "third party" help, you are still /distributing/ GPL'ed stuff.. therefore it is to be under the GPL license, not their own, or even a weird hybrid.
"Is that enough? Raymond doesn't think so. He believes that the beta should be under GPL and the other appropriate licenses. As he succinctly puts it, "They'll get toasted over this, and deserve it." "
Damn right. I'm with ESR on this one. Who needs another pointless distro, anyway? Stick to the ones that actually fill a niche.
"As Corel is discovering, making the jump from traditional commercial software practices and licenses to an open source model is harder to make then they might have thought. It's a lesson all companies moving to open source would be wise to heed."
While a lot of people would say that now is the time to test the GPL out in court, I don't think this scenario is really for the best, although it was bound to happen eventually. Companies are out to make money, free software is a new market companies have to adapt to, fight off, or get trampled by, and the GPL doesn't allow for money-making.. at least in the traditional sense conceptualized by "big business". And all this kind of friction between companies and the free software community is going to produce is bad PR relations, and a sense of bitterness on more than a few sides. I was going to add more to that, but I forgot what I was going to say. :)
~ Kish
The language that states that the whole thing is the property of Corel and not subject to other licenses is just flat out a violation of the GPL, no matter whether it's internal or not.
:)
Corel believes they are not distributing but are testing. The GPL applys to distributing. You can hack a GPL program to your heart's content and not give the changes away if it is for internal use only.
I know a lot of companies that only use Windows internally. Does that mean they don't need to license it from Microsoft? Can they just say they own it, and all the code to it, as long as they don't resell it? Of course not.
If Microsoft said you could in their EULA, then you could. Since they don't, you can't. The GPL allows hacking the source anyway you want without release changes as long as the program stays internal.
I think I got all of that right.
I've sent this already to GNU and Bruce... and just sent to ESR... anyone else who wants to take a shot at it, feel free. But I want legal answers, NOT opinions from knownothings.
/dev/null
---
With the hoopla over Corel Linux's illfated Beta license, a question has come up, and I'd like RMS's opinion, as well as any legal ones FSF can provide.
The question:
Is an 'internal use' ONLY change to a GPLed program subject to GPL copying and distribution requirements, source providing requirements,
etc?
Example:
I modify a GPLed program for personal use only, my own use, of course I do not have to provide source to the changes.
I modify a GPLed program (let's call it a cgi program on the web), I do not have to provide source for the changes, if I do not distribute the code, only use it myself on a web page. Right?
I modify a GPLed program for use in my business, my users only, no external users. Do I have to provide source, etc? This is the real gray area.
A lot of businesses have modified GPL code for internal use only, and they do not think they have to 'release', nor should they (in my opinion), unless and until it's given to the public (whatever that means) in some form, for free or pay or whatever. Does 'Internal Usage' involve copying and/or distribution?
If so, does in house changes mean that a user has GPLed rights to distribute beyond the company?
If so, GPLed code can never be under NDA, even in the case of internal use only, say security changes to the source, etc?
----
Answers to these please... Flames to
Help achieve Liberty in your lifetime - join the Free State Project - http://www.freestateproject.org
Could it be that the community has grown too large at this point for that to work in all cases? If Corel doesn't have the infrastructure right now to constructively process input from many thousands of beta testers, perhaps it is prudent to begin testing on a smaller scale. (I note that the company continues to hire Linux gurus.)
Of course Corel might also be concerned that the initial beta is indeed incomplete and unstable. As the company has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders (full disclosure: including me), it would want to try to avoid potentially damaging press about a raw beta distro.
OTOH, such a practical concern may well conflict with GPL terms. I'm glad Corel says it will fully release all GPL etc source later this quarter, but I also understand the argument that the GPL needs to be defended against erosion. So I've come to the conclusion that something needs to be done now, not soon, to avoid potentially alienating the coders upon whom Corel will continue to rely.
How about this:
If Corel were to release source in such a way that precludes putting together the pieces to re-create the (potentially incomplete/unstable) Corel Linux distro beta 1, wouldn't that address the company's stated concerns while also living up to the letter of the GPL? If you wrote something that was GPL'd, Corel modified it and now they were giving you the modified code, would you have a gripe anymore?
Disclaimers: To use my favorite acronym of this week: IANAL. I also am not a coder or a GPL expert. Just trying to find possible solutions that aren't counterproductive for either side in this squabble.
Freedom's just another word for nothing left Zulus
What you clearly don't understand is that Corel are not only violating a license agreement, but attempting to re-license the software they're distributing without the permission of the copyright holders.
Tell ya' what, why don't you grab a copy of the Corel Draw CDs, dump the files onto disk, modify a few configuration files and replace the install program with one of your own, nuke the Corel license agreement and replace it with your own license, knock off a couple thousand CD-Rs and send 'em out to a bunch of nice folks to Beta test it for you? How long do you think it would take Corel to have you thrown in jail? Do you think that what Corel are doing with regard to the GPL is any different?
If Corel have proprietary software that they want to keep under wraps for whatever reason, they should specify that the license applies only to that software and that it does not alter or effect the existing license on any of the other code included with their distribution.
slashdot broke my sig
I figure no one else has listened to anyone else who's said this, so I'll say it. Maybe a few more people might stop and think.
;)
THIS IS NOT A GPL VIOLATION!
If I wasn't rather averse to the blink tag, that'd be blinking. Corel's doing this exactly as they should. If they tried to keep a closed beta but didn't go through the normal beta testing processes (ie, where you are essentially becoming part of the internal testing team, not joe public, and as such are expected to file reports on the software with the company, not just use it and report bugs), then there'd be a GPL violation. But if I want to take every single GPL'ed program out there and restrict access to the combination I've put together, as long as I'm not publicly distributing it, THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.
So everyone needs to get a grip.
Corel hasn't said anywhere that they have any intention of violating the GPL. They haven't said that the final system WHEN AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC won't be free! They're simply keeping their testing versions private, which is probably a good thing. Using the general public for beta testing is a Microsoft tactic that is not only inappropriate in my opinion, but also does a poorer job of really methodically testing an environment.
Corel doesn't give a crap about the individual software packages where the beta is concerned -- they're not going to be fixing wierd things like the perl extensions to vgetty not ever working right... that's not what they do. They want to test their install process, the whole integration, the "polish" of the system. That's not an open-source part of the distribution, and doesn't need to be. You can't send a contrib RPM to RedHat and expect to see it in the next version of RedHat's distribution either... I think its completely retarded that I can't mount the swap space before going through all the crap in RedHat's install process -- thus I can't install in 8 meg on a PCMCIA system. But that's RedHat's business, and I can use another distribution.
Corel is undoubtedly one of the best things to happen to the Linux community, there are no lingering questions of their motives like Sun and others. They've been supporting Linux for years with Word Perfect, and with everythign else they're doing, it seems pretty childish to jump on something like this and risk pissing them off.
Linux isn't going to last if the hotheaded members of the community keep flipping out about every little thing, particularly when the flipping out is so uncalled for.
- a reformed hotheaded member of the linux community, for seven years
So, Corel has a product, which is under development, and they will one day distribute. When they start distributing it, it must be under GPL.
Right now, they are going into the beta phase of product development. In this phase, the product is tested by a select group of people, under a contract with the company (Corel).
What might be confusing people is that the OSS efforts on the net, like Linux, do not distinguish between beta phases and releases. At most, they have a "reliability" indicator.
The product Corel is developing is being developed in a closed way, and GPL does not forbid that.
Cool down, people. Nobody is stealing code.
(8-DCS)
Sure. That was my knee-jerk reaction too. Their license is invalid, therefore treat it as such and distribute at will. Hell, slap it on an ftp server somewhere and invite all your friends!
But wait! wont this just alienate Corel, giving them good reason to detest the Open Source community? Do we really want to be that antagonistic?
As I see it, ultimately they've stuffed up, and are actually legally in the wrong. Someone in Corel just has to admit it, redo the beta license, and move on.
If they don't, if they still need some encouraging in order to sort this out, then infact anyone who owns GPLed code that's in the Corel distribution is fully allowed to tell Corel they no longer have the right to use it. Read that bit of the GPL? Something about breaking the GPL removes their right to the use of the software.
But again, doing that would alienate Corel. This should be handled carefully and diplomatically, not in usual zeolot style flaming manner. My recommendation is that if you wrote GPLed code that's in Corel's distribution, then politely tell them that they're breaking with the license agreement, and could they please modify their licensing or you will be forced to revoke their rights to use your code. Sort of a cease and desist thingie. No need to actually revoke their rights, just the mild warning should do the trick, surely.
el bobo
Corel believes they are not distributing but are testing. The GPL applys to distributing. You can hack a GPL program to your heart's content and not give the changes away if it is for internal use only.
That's fine, but your missing something: while you are not forced to release any changes you make to a program, it's *still* under the GPL.
To take the example of another poster, let's say I'm working on a program that uses GPL'd code, and I'm not ready to release it yet, but I want my friend to test it. I send to to him, ask him to run it for me and take a look, and see if it seems OK. I tell him to please not distribute him. I may even tell him that if he *does* distribute it, I'll hate him and go punch his lights out. That's okay (well, unless I physically assult him and he calls the police, but that's another matter), but I still must distribute the program to him under the GPL. I can't stick a new license on it, and if he decides to distribute it, that's his right.
Likewise, for Corel, say, any employee could grab their internal beta that they're working on and distribute it to the work, and the guy is allowed to do that. Corel may be able to fire him, depending on his contract. So, what's Corel to do with this beta? They could simply have said "this is beta, please don't distribute since it's buggy", and people just maybe would have listened. Or they could have just kept it internal.
IANAL, but I read the GPL for fun twice. *grin*
Quick points: (These are just my opinions, of course, and they could all be wrong, but they are what I've come up with after some pondering.)
1. Corel copies the Linux Kernel, for internal development. The Linux Kernel is under copyright, which means that it can only be redistributed with permission from the author(s). This permission is, of course, granted by the GPL, under certain terms. Corel is now bound by the GPL as to how it may copy the kernel.
2. User A signs a contract with Corel agreeing (among other things) to not distribute its Beta Linux operating system (including the Linux Kernel, of course), to other people.
3a. User A is now bound by contract not to distribute Corel Beta Linux. User A is granted permission by the GPL to use Corel Beta Linux on his own machine, of course.
3b. Corel has now violated the license under which it is now copying copyrighted software; the license says that in this case the license becomes null and void. Therefore, Corel is in big legal trouble for breach of license (breaking copyright law, basically).
Any comments?
And that's probably Corel's only mistake here. And yet it probably should be assumed to be implied. The proprietory apps in the distribution that Corel developed falls under their license. But that license doesn't alter the license of the GPL'ed apps. So if I need Apache, I can download it, or grab it off the cd and do whatever I want with it. It's the same thing.
So the real question is, Is that what Corel meant, but failed to articulate? Or did they mean I can't freely distribute Apache from their distribution? Because if it's the first, it's not reall a problem, and Bruce and the OSI will help resolve it. If it's the second, it is a problem and hopefully, Bruce will be able to resolve it.
Of course, it also involves their changes to the GPL code. If they made changes they didn't release, then they may just want to make sure that the code is rock-solid before releasing. Is this a bad thing? Not IMHO. Of course, that means we'll have to accept Corel's decision to not distribute until it's "formally" released
-Brent--
'the GPL covers the terms under which the software must be distributed'
No, the GPL quite clearly states:
'4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License.'
Now that quite clearly means that however you define distribution is irrelevant, because they are copying, modifying, and sublicensing. The GPL goes on to say:
'Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.'
So, if we were to do this by the book, then we could say they have already voided their rights. But I think that's probably going just a little over the top as yet! The GPL goes on again to say:
'However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.'
Which to me states that we can work with the Corel Linux Beta as it if were a normal GPLed distribution anyway.
Please if you know more about licensing law than me, do correct me.
Of course, this is all very subversive talk, and probably quite unnecessary as I'm sure Corel will figure it out soon enough and sort things. But still, it does put things in an interesting light. The GPL actually appears quite powerful at the end of the day, when it comes to defending the end user. Not so good for people like Corel who want to do things their way though.
elbobo
Don't panic, folks, it really is being worked on.
Thanks
Bruce Perens
Bruce Perens.