Google and Open Source Licenses
September 23, 2010
I don’t understand the subtle differences in the various open source licenses. In fact, I don’t want to have this type of legal knowledge. Whenever I look at a legal document, I get a headache. I also know that the word “all” in a legal context is an invitation to trouble. Part of the legal education is designed to force the other party to embrace a categorical affirmative. One exception causes the house of cards to collapse. Nevertheless, we noted an “all” in a story about Google.
Google has come in line with the demands of the time, and announced that, “Google Code developer site will now host open-source projects using any license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI),” as mentioned in The Register.co.uk article, “Google Code Bear Hugs All OSI Open-Source Licenses.” Google says the shift in its policy is to support open source software developers, but maintaining its strong stance on license proliferation, it says it will, “continue to hunt down and kill non-open source projects or other projects using Google Code as a generic file-hosting service.”
Developers can now mention their license in the “other-open source” option in the Google Code’s license selector, to specify a license that is not included in Google’s existing list. Previously criticized for snubbing the AGPL, Google now expresses regret over rejecting the zlib and the AGPL. The giant seems to be opening-up, at least for the code.
Now, about that one exception? I opine that we will have to wait and see how the new policy actually works when and if an open source action steps on a Google toe.
Stephen E Arnold, September 23, 2010
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