APSL 1.2

[phil hunt]

I wrote:
> > Two question that spring to mind:
> >
> > If someone is using internally a modification of APSL software, why
> > would they want to not disclose it?
> >
> > If someone is using internally a modification of APSL software, why
> > would Apple mind them not disclosing it?       

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Ron Dumont wrote:
> We are trying to encourage companies who deploy APSL software to share 
> their modifications with the broader community.  Typically, companies 
> will adapt software to meet the broader needs of people across their 
> organization.  An example is the use of our Streaming Server software, 
> where changes made to serve an organization can be of direct benefit to 
> other users in the community.

Indeed. And if a company releases their changes, the changes can get
incorporated into the latest version, and kept up-to-date.

The APSL, however, doesn't give companies the option of *not*
releasing their changes. IMO this provision is unlikely to benefit Apple
much, because:

(i) most companies that produce significant changes will want to 
release them, for the reason I give above

(ii) companies that *don't* want to contribute their changes are likely
to just not release them; no-one will find out what they are doing,
because they won't tell anyone. If a company doesn't want to play nice,
I don't think this provision is likely to persuade them otherwise.

So I don't think this clause helps Apple much; it just seems to irk
some people (such as RMS) -- and Apple has no interest in alienating
part of the open source / free software developer community.

Lastly, IANAL but I think this license as it stands isn't open source,
because it discriminates against a field of activity, in that the
rules for disclosure of internal modifications differ depending on
whether its being used for commercial or non commercial purposes.

-- 
***** Phil Hunt ***** 
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