N.a.v. [url=http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/02/10/06/0518220.shtml?tid=106]dit artikel[url] op Slashdot dit topic. BitKeeper, het closed-source, commerciele CVS-achtige systeem dat gebruikt wordt om de ontwikkeling van de kernel en het inpassen van de vele patches die hiervoor dagelijks worden aangeleverd, schijnt sinds enige tijd in haar EULA een clausule te hebben staan, die het gebruikers van het product verbiedt om, via BitKeeper zelf of anderzijds, een concurrent van BitKeeper te ontwikkelen, of een product met vergelijkbare functies, zelf of via andere personen in hetzelfde bedrijf.
Dit betekent dat een 'bedrijf' als Debian, wat developers in dienst heeft die aan de kernel werken, verboden is om developers in dienst te hebben die aan een concurrent werken van BitKeeper, zoals CVS of SubVersion (de opvolger van CVS, momenteel in ontwikkeling).
Een mailtje op de Debian mailinglist:
Meningen?
Dit betekent dat een 'bedrijf' als Debian, wat developers in dienst heeft die aan de kernel werken, verboden is om developers in dienst te hebben die aan een concurrent werken van BitKeeper, zoals CVS of SubVersion (de opvolger van CVS, momenteel in ontwikkeling).
Een mailtje op de Debian mailinglist:
Ahum? Het blijkt ook werkelijk in praktijk te worden gebracht, zoals bijvoorbeeld is te lezen in dit bericht op de kernel mailinglist: de licentie om bitkeeper van deze persoon is ingetrokken omdat hij, buiten Bitkeeper om, aan een concurrent werkt:It has come to the attention of several Debian developers that any of us
may be exposed to tort claims from BitMover, Inc., the company that
produces BitKeeper, the software that is in wide usage as a
revision-control system among Linux kernel developers.
Specifically, the BitKeeper license states the following:
(d) Notwithstanding any other terms in this License, this
License is not available to You if You and/or your
employer develop, produce, sell, and/or resell a
product which contains substantially similar capabil-
ities of the BitKeeper Software, or, in the reason-
able opinion of BitMover, competes with the BitKeeper
Software.
Note the broad sweep of these terms.
If:
1) you
OR
2) the company you work for
A) develops
OR
produces
OR
C) sells
OR
D) resells
*) anything containing functionality substantially similar to BitKeeper
OR
**) anything which, in the "reasonable" opinion of BitMover, competes
with BitKeeper
...you have no license to use the BitKeeper software. To use the
software legally under any conjunction of the above circumstances, you
will have to pay BitMover for a license.
Take special note that:
* The license on the "anything" containing substantially similar
capabilities to BitKeeper *does not matter*. In other words, if you
or employer develops, produces, sells, or resells anything containing,
say Subversion or CVS, you have no gratis license to use BitKeeper.
* BitMover reserves the right to express its "reasonable opinion" about
what does and does not compete with BitKeeper. The burden is on *you*
to persuade them in *each* and *every* case that the work you do
doesn't "compete" with BitKeeper. Alternatively, you could take
BitMover to court and seek something like a declaratory judgement.
Specifically, this problem has been seen to affect Ben Collins, former
DPL and GNU C Library maintainer, who just happens to work on both the
Subversion project -- a freely-licensed revision control system designed
to supplant CVS -- and the Linux 1394 ("FireWire") Project.
Because the Debian Project distributes revision control tools like RCS,
CVS, and Subversion (and Arch in the near future, if we don't already),
and because we are a large organization with many members who likely
have many different employers, I felt ethically obliged to bring this
issue to the Project's attention.
Until and unless BitMover changes the license on BitKeeper to eliminate
this onerous clause, the wisest course of action may be to refrain from
using BitKeeper altogether. You may also want to bring this problem to
the attention of your employer, if you think it is likely that your
organization may be affected.
To read more about this issue, see your favorite archive of the
linux-kernel mailing list. For example:
http://www.uwsg.indiana.e...x/kernel/0210.0/1496.html
I express no opinion as to whether to the requirements of the BitKeeper
license are legitimate, valid, or enforceable in any particular
jurisdiction. If you are concerned about this issue, please retain
counsel.
Ik vind het belachelijk dat BitKeeper nog een seconde langer wordt gebruikt en wat mij betreft mag BitKeeper, ondanks haar (volgens de eigenaar) zo goede bedoelingen om de Linux Kernel ontwikkeling van dienst te zijn, nog op dit moment in /dev/null worden gegooid. Dit soort praktijken en/of regeltjes gaan absoluut niet samen met het idee achter Free Software, en moet dus ook niet gebruikt worden om de kernel te ontwikkelen. Gebruik dan gewoon CVS of SubVersion (voor zover dat al bruikbaar is).On Sat, Oct 05, 2002 at 01:54:37PM -0400, Ben Collins wrote:
> Larry, I develop for the Subversion project. Does that mean my license
> to use bitkeeper is revoked?
Yes. It has been since we shipped that license or when you started working
on Subversion, whichever came last.
> I've also been wanting to use bitkeeper to create a Subversion mirror of
> the kernel repository, but I suspect that my usage falls seriously into
> this category, as my reasons for doing so are three-fold; allow access
> to the bkbits repo to folks who don't want to use bk, but with all the
> joys of an SCM (history, changesets, etc.); stress test Subversion
> against a real-world high-activity repo; promote Subversion.
>
> Would it be your intention that your license disallow my type of work? I
> think it does.
You bet it does. The Subversion folks would like nothing better than
to displace BK. That's fine, but they don't get to use BK to do it.
You're absolutely correct that you could use BK to make Subversion better.
It is not our job to help you make Subversion better and we've made that
clear for a long time.
We're a business. We're a business which happens to be committed to
helping the kernel team because we think that the kernel is vital to
the world at large. Helping the kernel absolutely does not translate
to helping people who happen to be our competitors. By your own
description and by our experience with you, you would be a competitor.
And since we're here, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that when I
asked about getting a netwinder so I could support the ARM folks, you were
the guy who sent me mail saying you had some that you weren't using and
that we couldn't have one because you didn't like our license. If I recall
it was either that mail exchange or a subsequent one in which you made it
clear that you were working on Subversion so Subversion could replace BK.
You're the guy that refused to help us help the community. And you made
it clear that you'd be delighted if Subversion was made good enough to
replace BK and you were working towards that goal. I can't imagine a
better example of someone who we absolutely do not want to support and
do not want using BK. I am explicitly stating that it is our view that
your use of BK is violation of our license.
Meningen?