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DIGITALCLASSICIST  April 2013

DIGITALCLASSICIST April 2013

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Subject:

Re: Latin OWL

From:

Nick White <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

The Digital Classicist List <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:59:14 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

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text/plain (53 lines)

I hope the below is somewhat interesting and relevant for some
people here. Let me know if it isn't and I'll take it off-list.

> Of course, as the app developer I'm free to give you one licence and Apple another - something they make me do when I upload it into the App Store.

You're right, that is the only way to distribute GPL or LGPL
software on the App Store while still complying with Apple's
developer agreements. The main downside to this that I see is that
it requires agreement from all developers of a project. Rather
than just releasing their contributions under the GPL, they have to
do that and agree to give Apple a copy under different terms.
Obviously that isn't an issue at the moment for something like your
software, that is only developed by you, and only targets the App
Store anyway, but in general it's not great for free software.

It also effectively removes the nice part of copyleft that anybody
who gets a copy of the source has the same rights as the original
developers. The "freedom to fork" is effectively reduced, as nobody
else can (say) add a new feature and release their own modified
version on the predominant distribution channel.

Permissive licenses like BSD, MIT and ISC don't have the same
issues, as they don't require the same freedoms for all users that
the GPL and LGPL do.

It is really an issue with the agreements that Apple require
developers to sign in order to put software on the App Store, and
the lack of any alternative way of distributing software for the
iPhone. It is a problem for free and open source software, but one
that only Apple could adequately fix, and that they don't seem to
care about.

The Android issue is slightly different. While I believe the Google
Play Store has similar agreements that preclude GPL and LGPL
software from being listed there, Android does normally allow people
to install software outside of the official store app, e.g. from an
independant website or an alternative app store.

There's a recording of a panel discussion about App Stores from a
free software perspective if anyone's interested. Unfortunately it
doesn't conclude with a satisfying "and this is the way the fix the
problem" consensus, but that's unsuprising ;)
http://faif.us/cast/2012/mar/13/0x24/

Outside the issues with free software licensing, App Stores like
these also have problematic (and well publicised) issues of
curation, which are ten times worse if there is no alternative
distribution channel. The book and blog "The Future of the Internet"
covers these issues really well, if anybody is interested in reading
more. http://futureoftheinternet.org/blog

Nick

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