Is it just me or is passing off things that aren’t FOSS as FOSS a much bigger thing lately than it was previously.
Don’t get me wrong. I remember Microsoft’s “shared source” thing from back in the day. So I know it’s not a new thing per se. But it still seems like it’s suddenly a bigger problem than it was previously.
LLaMa, the large language model, is billed by Meta as “Open Source”, but isn’t.
I just learned today about “Grayjay,” a video streaming service client app created by Louis Rossmann. Various aticles out there are billing it as “Open Source” or “FOSS”. It’s not. Grayjay’s license doesn’t allow commercial redistribution or derivative works. Its source code is available to the general public, but that’s far from sufficient to qualify as “Open Source.” (That article even claims “GrayJay is an open-source app, which means that users are free to alter it to meet their specific needs,” but Grayjay’s license grants no license to create modified versions at all.) FUTO, the parent project of Grayjay pledges on its site that “All FUTO-funded projects are expected to be open-source or develop a plan to eventually become so.” I hope that means that they’ll be making Grayjay properly Open Source at some point. (Maybe once it’s sufficiently mature/tested?) But I worry that they’re just conflating “source available” and “Open Source.”
I’ve also seen some sentiment around that “whatever, doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match the OSI’s definition of Open Source. Source available is just as good and OSI doesn’t get a monopoly on the term ‘Open Source’ anyway and you’re being pedantic for refusing to use the term ‘Open Source’ for this program that won’t let you use it commercially or make modifications.”
It just makes me nervous. I don’t want to see these terms muddied. If that ultimately happens and these terms end up not really being meaningful/helpful, maybe the next best thing is to only speak in terms of concrete license names. We all know the GPL, MIT, BSD, Apache, Mozilla, etc kind of licenses are unambiguously FOSS licenses in the strictest sense of the term. If a piece of software is under something that doesn’t have a specific name, then the best we’d be able to do is just read it and see if it matches the OSI definition or Free Software definition.
Until then, I guess I’ll keep doing my best to tell folks when something’s called FOSS that isn’t FOSS. I’m not sure what else to do about this issue, really.
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I think we’re seeing a natural evolution, and it’s in no small part due to corpos using FOSS to their own will. FOSS works if everyone is playing nicely, but corpos aren’t.
For example. You build a small piece of code that helps out a huge chunk of developers. You release it for free, and let them use it however they want. A ton of small projects and apps are made easier thanks to you and your work, and you get called out from them. However, a giant corpo then takes this, uses it in all of their brand-name solutions, and then sells those solutions for millions of dollars becoming one of the most profitable companies in existence. You don’t get a dime for your work, even though without your work their work would have been much more difficult.
This is the story of core.js, who’s developer is currently in search of work to feed his family in Eastern Europe, while Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and pretty much 90% of the web use his code. He used the MIT license which allows this.
I think a lot of developers have seen this and are wise to it. GPL licensing is on the rise. I know when I read his story I immediately changed my tone from “FOSS/MIT Licensing is the best most moral way to go” to “Oh fuck those corpos, they could have at least said thank you”.
Personally I hope more devs push for “Open source, but check the license” so they get credit where credit is due. I think it’s completely fair for them to use a license that says “You are free to use it however you want - but if you start charging for your product I get a cut.”
I’d like a license where the source is available but companies need to pay to use
Isn’t that what Unreal Engine has?
I’ve also heard it referred to as “source available”.
