Officials at Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo! may be asking that question next week when free software zealot Richard Stallman releases General Public License Version 3, the first update in fifteen years. A loving CNET tribute piece (the reporter refers to GPL as "a seminal work") predicts this change:

• A mechanism to govern how GPL software is used on servers that provide services publicly available over the Internet. That is a gray area regarding whether GPL software is used internally within an organization or distributed externally; modifications to software GPL must be available only if the software is distributed.

The reporter's only elaboration is this: "For example, a GPL-governed program might be customized before it's used in a service such as one for creating online maps." But this means far more than that. As Jim has pointed out, many web-based services run on GPL. You use these services every day, but because you don't actually download their software onto your computer, it's generally not considered distribution under the GPL. It appears under GPL3, all of those above companies, which use open-source software, would have to release all of their revisions. I'm sure their competitors would love to see that code. Will people still use Google if they can use a new service using exactly the same code called "Angie's Search Engine" (assuming Angie owns several servers) and enjoy far fewer ads?

posted by Patrick Ross @ 12:17 PM | Free Culture Movement, Internet: P2P, Search Engines..., Patents, Software

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