> >Let me lay out a scenario that I just elucidated on Stephen O'Grady's
> >blog (http://redmonk.com/sogrady/): let's say that several years down the
> >track, a major competitor to Sun in the server space decides that, much to
> >their regret, OpenSolaris is an option that they must not just provide, but
> >also extend and develop. But the competitor doesn't want to outsource its
> >OS development to Sun -- they just want to hijack OpenSolaris. A GPLv3
> >dual-license allows for a devious plan: they could take the source, strip
> >the CDDL, and announce that their "GPLv3-only" OpenSolaris was open to all
> >comers.
>
> This can be done right now, without any involvement with a GPL dual
> license, solely under CDDL.
>
> This hypothetical competitor can take the current OpenSolaris, under
> CDDL, set up an open development environment somewhere, and purposely
> and explicitly disallow anyone who is now, or has ever been associated
> with, Sun Microsystems, from participating in this new venture, under
> any circumstances.
Perhaps, but the license is still the same -- a derivative of both could
still incorporate code from both.
> This new venture can make API and ABI incompatible changes to existing
> source, they can add new source (and features) based on these
> incompatible changes, thereby making it, if not impossible,
> impractical to even try to merge these changes back into OpenSolaris.
> This newly added source might implement features which would be
> desirable in OpenSolaris. However, because of the nefarious intent of
> this hypothetical competitor, these features cannot be brought back
> into OpenSolaris, because it would require ABI and API breakage.
And again, a derivative of both could still resolve the divergence.
The problem comes when, under a dual-license, the fork becomes unresolvable
because the forks are licensed differently. Such a fork would force
each member of the OpenSolaris community to choose one or the other,
cleaving (and weakening) the community.
- Bryan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan Cantrill, Solaris Kernel Development. http://blogs.sun.com/bmc
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