You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true [LWN.net]

You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 25, 2013 18:20 UTC (Thu) by oshepherd (guest, #90163)
In reply to: You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true by Jan_Zerebecki
Parent article: Android 4.3

If Apple were so hell bent against the GPL2, why would they go through the effort of signing a copyright assignment agreement with the FSF?

You portray things as if Apple/NeXT were hell bent against the GPL and contributing to GCC - if they were that hell bent, why did it take them 18 years (From the Objective C compiler's release in 1989 to Clang being open sourced - by Apple) to even start replacing it? Why did it take them until the dawn of the GPLv3 to begin heavily contributing to LLVM? Why do they, to this day, ship (GPLv2) versions of GNU Coreutils, Bash, Make, etc, if they despise the GPL so, when the BSDs could give them viable equivalents?

Lots of GPL zealots try to make it out that Apple are some sort of open source pariah; yet they have invested lots of effort into LLVM and Clang with no requirement that they release their work as open source. They have invested lots of work into WebKit, with no requirements that they support any platform besides their own, and yet it has become the worlds' most ported browser engine under their watch. They continue to give away things like libdispatch (Apache2), their variant of the DCERPC library (BSD), the ALAC codec (Apache2) and their CalDav/CardDav server (Apache2) without anybody so much as asking

Yeah, I have issues with Apple too. I think it goes without saying that they're definitely no saint, but it's disingenuous to claim that they hate the GPL.

I can think of far, far more toxic companies. Oracle spring to mind.

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You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 25, 2013 20:53 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

They have invested lots of work into WebKit, with no requirements that they support any platform besides their own, and yet it has become the worlds' most ported browser engine under their watch.

That one is direct result if GPL. LGPLv2 to be precise. WebKit was born when people complained about lack of Safari's source code. And it was always separable from Safari exactly because Apple knew that they will be forced to release source code.

IOW: Apple (and many other companies) accepted GPLv2. They were not happy, but they accepted GPLv2 "tit for tat" principle. When GPLv3 arrived with it's "I'm altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." approach they rebelled.

You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 25, 2013 20:53 UTC (Thu) by Jan_Zerebecki (guest, #70319) [Link] (4 responses)

Signing the copyright assignment seems like a logical next step because it saves them effort in maintaining the fork. Liking or hating the GPLv2 doesn't enter into that equation because the code in question was already GPLv2 licensed.

AFAIK, GPLv2 Bash, Make and so on are not shipped in Apples mobile devices. I suppose those are just not that important nor substantially modified.

I don't think Apple wants to avoid the use of copyleft software at all cost. I do think that the Apple of today hates the general idea of being forced to publish their written/changed software by copyleft more than they did back then. I also do think Apple hates the GPLv3 more than the GPLv2, because the Anti-Tivo clause makes the GPLv3 incompatible with them locking down their mobile hardware.

> The GPLv3, in a lot of people's world views, was a step too far; and I think you'll find, for a lot of people and companies, it's not the anti-"tivotization" clause that is the problem: it's the anti-patent-licensing clause.

If the explicit patent-licensing clause were in general a problem for Apple why do they use the Apache2 license, which has a similar clause?

If Apple likes the GPLv2 why do they prevent developers from using it for mobile Apps in their Appstore legalese?

You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 25, 2013 21:54 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

They are afraid to trigger the "derived work" clause and be forced to disclose at least parts of iOS source code.

You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 26, 2013 14:52 UTC (Fri) by raven667 (guest, #5198) [Link] (2 responses)

> the Anti-Tivo clause makes the GPLv3 incompatible with them locking down their mobile hardware.

I think this was handled poorly by the GPLv3 design committee, a public relations failure as much as a technical legal one. ISTM the way to handle anti-TiVoization is to make the lock-down keys user-modifiable or provide a tamper switch to stop the boot check, the way that the Chromebooks work. You can either run the vendor-supplied firmware with DRM and whatnot or you can, with some small amount of effort, replace it with your own without the DRM.

The whole thing where it was said that you needed to divulge your private keys to make signed firmware images was a huge black eye and has done much to prevent uptake of the GPLv3 by device makers. This perception should have been fought tooth and nail both with extensive propaganda and supporting changes to the legal text.

That's just my opinion though.

You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 30, 2013 17:44 UTC (Tue) by rfontana (subscriber, #52677) [Link] (1 responses)

> I think this was handled poorly by the GPLv3 design committee,

The what?

> ISTM the way to handle anti-TiVoization is to make the lock-down
> keys user-modifiable or provide a tamper switch to stop the boot
> check, the way that the Chromebooks work. You can either run the
> vendor-supplied firmware with DRM and whatnot or you can, with some
> small amount of effort, replace it with your own without the DRM.

This is one way to comply with the so-called anti-TiVoization
provisions of GPLv3.

You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true

Posted Jul 30, 2013 19:16 UTC (Tue) by raven667 (guest, #5198) [Link]

>> make the lock-down keys user-modifiable or provide a tamper switch to stop the boot check, the way that the Chromebooks work.

> This is one way to comply with the so-called anti-TiVoization
provisions of GPLv3.

Yes and this was poorly advertised and promoted. Even today people commonly claim that the only way to comply with the GPLv3 is to provide the private signing keys or that the GPLv3 is fundamentally incompatible with any kind of boot time checks. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why Linus and many Linux developers don't like the GPLv3 and why many large projects are GPLv2-only or don't pick a GPL-family license at all. I think that we now have less Free Software using the GPL-family after the GPLv3 than before its introduction, which seems like a disaster to me.

I don't see much other than the Google devices which even try to be open, and the Android team didn't even chose the GPL because they believe it is incompatible with their business interests. Whether that is true or not, the fact that the meme is out there and so strong it its own problem that should have been avoided.