Protecting Open Source
Protecting Open Source
- Subject: Protecting Open Source
- From: Bill Bumgarner <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2002 12:54:43 -0400
That is exactly what happened with Xoptimize...
http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=10451&db=mac
The author of Moo grabbed the source to Xoptimize, embedded the UI into
his application, and has released it (in this case, as freeware).
http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=14299&db=mac
If you compare the release notes of Xoptimize to Moo at the above two URLs,
you might note some striking similarities. Copy/paste style coding taken
to a new level -- he even copied release notes for features that aren't
actually reflected in his version. :-)
I had a couple of folks asked me if I was irritated by this. Not in the
least (though I did have to explain to the author that he needed to
include the MIT license text with the release) though I do find the whole
thing rather amusingly presumptuous.
As long as I continue active development on the app, his version is always
going to be one step behind feature wise and in terms of support.
Even those authors that have created apps with similarly functionality on
their own, if they have chosen to go the shareware route, comparisons have
invariably been drawn and they haven't always been terribly favorable.
The bottom line: go the open source route. Someone ripping off the
code and using it for their own purposes is a great compliment. They may
make a few $$$ off of your work, but they could just as easily write it on
their own. If you were going to release it as freeware-- with or without
source-- anyway, it isn't like they are taking $$$ from you anyway!
As long as your project is in active development, anyone copying your work
will always be one step behind. If your app is useful or popular, a
community of users will quickly spring up around it and it is likely you
will start to receive contributions from the development community.
Xoptimize is a great example of that-- the very nice icon and a part of
the UI were contributed by folks that downloaded the source and donated
their efforts. A japanese user pulled down the app and localized it (I
ought to integrate this back into Xoptimize, but I haven't had the time).
---
Finally, if you do go the open source route, consider the license you want
to use. I pretty much always use the MIT License as it is completely
non-restrictive. I never use the GPL as it is an encumbered license. To
me, "free software" means that the user should be free to do whatever they
bloody well please, which the GPL does not allow.
Feel free to grab the source to Xoptimize-- mosxland.sourceforge.net
repository (also included on the disk image from VersionTracker). It
includes the MIT license. The app was never intended to actually be
used on a regular basis; it was intended to be an opensource example of a
couple of tricky Cocoa development issues.
b.bum
On Saturday, June 1, 2002, at 12:03 PM, email@hidden
wrote:
I am hearing a lot of people tell me that open source software is
the way to go. I am slightly thinking of going this way with Swap
but could someone help me out with these questions I have? First
off, the only thing I have about open source is that some small
shareware company could come along, steal the code that I and
others developers have worked so hard on, change some interface
elements and edit some code, rename the project and then sell it as
their own. How would I protect against this?
If someone could answer that question I might be interested in
making Swap fully open source :-)
_______________________________________________
cocoa-dev mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/cocoa-dev
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.