YAPL is bad (was: Re: Backlog assistance?)

[Rob Myers]

on 24/9/01 2:15 pm, John Cowan at jcowan at reutershealth.com wrote:

> 
> Rob Myers wrote:
> 
>> I agree that this is an offer rather than a directive. But the effect of
>> making the source (ultimately) available to anyone is the same as soon as
>> the license is accepted. The GPL has this effect, the APSL makes this effect
>> explicit. Any attempt to control this (by requiring that employees or
>> clients not distribute the source) is in breach of the license.
> 
> Right enough, but it still may be contained by voluntary action or
> by sheer inertia.

A disgruntled programmer can stop voluntarily not distributing code. My
GPL/APSL comparison does (deliberately) exclude inertia, and I agree that in
the real world it is a powerful force, but it is not *certain* to regulate
code distribution. This all leaves something to chance which the APSL does
not, although the APSL resolves it in a manner which is clearly
unsatisfactory to many people.

> Just as a practical matter, this may be an impediment to using
> modified APSL code in a company that has restrictions about what its
> employees may publish.

I agree, but I believe that this is a general problem with the *idea* of
Open Source rather than Apple's implementation of it.

- Rob.

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