Monday, April 28, 2008
The GPL in a software-as-a-service world
Just this last weekend I went to Linuxfest Northwest, which is held here in Bellingham. This is nice! It's just a short drive.
One of the talks I went to was held by Ted Haeger, currently of Bungee Labs. The topic of the talk was one he had just posted to his blog, "Sharing Source Code In The Cloud".
One point he brought up that I hadn't heard of before is that the GPL triggers when you 'convey' the software to someone else. And that the GPL specifically excludes where the software is hosted on a server and users just use the software there, so long as the software itself never leaves the company in question. This is exactly what Google did and still does. All of their search IP was built on an OSS platform, but is still held as the crown jewels of their company; all because they haven't given the software to anyone else.
Apparently, this 'loophole' is being exploited by a LOT of new companies trying to get in on the software-as-a-service market. Such as Bungee Labs, as it happens. What effect will this have on the state of GPLed software? Hard to say, the market is still in its early days.
It makes you think.
One of the talks I went to was held by Ted Haeger, currently of Bungee Labs. The topic of the talk was one he had just posted to his blog, "Sharing Source Code In The Cloud".
One point he brought up that I hadn't heard of before is that the GPL triggers when you 'convey' the software to someone else. And that the GPL specifically excludes where the software is hosted on a server and users just use the software there, so long as the software itself never leaves the company in question. This is exactly what Google did and still does. All of their search IP was built on an OSS platform, but is still held as the crown jewels of their company; all because they haven't given the software to anyone else.
Apparently, this 'loophole' is being exploited by a LOT of new companies trying to get in on the software-as-a-service market. Such as Bungee Labs, as it happens. What effect will this have on the state of GPLed software? Hard to say, the market is still in its early days.
It makes you think.
<permalink> posted by riedesg : 4/28/2008 10:54:00 AM
