On 2/4/07, Bryan Cantrill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Let me lay out a scenario that I just elucidated on Stephen O'Grady's blog (http://redmonk.com/sogrady/): let's say that several years down the track, a major competitor to Sun in the server space decides that, much to their regret, OpenSolaris is an option that they must not just provide, but also extend and develop. But the competitor doesn't want to outsource its OS development to Sun -- they just want to hijack OpenSolaris. A GPLv3 dual-license allows for a devious plan: they could take the source, strip the CDDL, and announce that their "GPLv3-only" OpenSolaris was open to all comers.
This can be done right now, without any involvement with a GPL dual license, solely under CDDL. This hypothetical competitor can take the current OpenSolaris, under CDDL, set up an open development environment somewhere, and purposely and explicitly disallow anyone who is now, or has ever been associated with, Sun Microsystems, from participating in this new venture, under any circumstances. This new venture can make API and ABI incompatible changes to existing source, they can add new source (and features) based on these incompatible changes, thereby making it, if not impossible, impractical to even try to merge these changes back into OpenSolaris. This newly added source might implement features which would be desirable in OpenSolaris. However, because of the nefarious intent of this hypothetical competitor, these features cannot be brought back into OpenSolaris, because it would require ABI and API breakage. At this point there are two incompatible versions of OpenSolaris, which can never be reconciled. This new "WeBrokeABIWithOpenSolarisSoNeenerNeenerNeener" operating system might even become very successful, and might even "steal momentum from OpenSolaris". And this was done exclusively under CDDL. What does this have to do with the GPL ? For the record: Yes, i am a card carrying member of the Free Software Foundation. --Stefan -- Stefan Teleman KDE e.V. [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
