tiagosilva29 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 We've had an immense hubbub about the delay in the source code release of Honeycomb, which led to a storm of critique being sent Google's way. Turns out there's another company withholding source code, and this time it's Apple. They have stopped releasing the LGPL source code for WebKit in iOS since iOS 4.3.0, released about 8 weeks ago. Turns out - this isn't the first time Apple has refused to release (L)GPL'd code. It took them six months to release the required GPL source code for iOS 4.1.iOS contains a number of open source components, with WebKit probably being the most user-visible of them. I've used the mobile browsers on Android (up until 2.2), Windows Phone 7 and iOS, and there's no doubt in my mind that Mobile Safari is the most pleasant to use. Mobile Internet Explorer is certainly not as bad as some make it out to be, but good it is not. Android 2.2's browser is just as capable as Mobile Safari, but it just doesn't feel as smooth (on an HTC Desire). Starting with iOS 4.3.0, Apple has ceased distributing the source code to the platform's WebKit browser engine. This source code is licensed under the LGPL, and as such, there's copyleft on it - we're not talking a permissive BSD license here. Since iOS 4.3.0, released 8 weeks ago, we've seen several other minor iOS releases, but no source code. "It cannot be a simple oversight, as multiple inquiries have been made to Apple by interested developers. However, no source code until today," writes Harald Welte, "I think it is time that Apple gets their act together and becomes more straight-forward with LGPL compliance. It is not acceptable to delay the source code release for 8 weeks after shipping a LGPL licensed software. Especially not, if you have already demonstrated in the past that you are well aware of the obligations and have a process and a website to release the corresponding source code under the license conditions." I never really dove into this stuff, but as it turns out, this is not uncommon for Apple. It took Apple a whopping six months to release the source code for components in iOS 4.1 (iOS 4.1: September 2010 - source: March 2011), a lot of which is covered by the GPL. I found this startling; Google was open and honest about not releasing BSD code for now, and here we have Apple structurally refusing to release GPL code for six months, and not a peep anywhere on mainstream tech websites. Jay 'Saurik' Freeman, the man behind Cydia, even believes that Apple will, eventually, find itself facing a GPL lawsuit. In an article on upgrading the iPhone toolchain, he said about Apple's lacklustre approach to releasing Xcode's gcc's GPL code, "I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple ends up on the bad end of a GPL-related lawsuit". Freeman believes that Apple never even released the source code to the gcc components in Xcode 2.5 (I couldn't find confirmation for this though, so take it as-is). (...) Source: OSNews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidSolstice Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 I was under the impression that Google was withholding the source code for HC in order to ensure that it gets it right with little to no fragmentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkMan Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 I was under the impression that Google was withholding the source code for HC in order to ensure that it gets it right with little to no fragmentation. No, they prevent fragmentation by using the Android and Android marketplace license. or well they could have, but haven't but are supposedly going to start to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japlabot Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Apple are very "pro-Open Source" when it suits them to take from the community rather than write their own, but in all other aspects are as closed as a black hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OuchOfDeath Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Everyone do take into account that withholding GPL/LGPL source code while releasing a product using it out into the public is a violation of the licence and has time and time again been legally enforced in court by EFF lawsuits (Electronic Frontier Foundation). I was under the impression that the Android source code retention was a license violation, but the article clears it up. Android itself is under the Apache licence which does not require publishing of source code after releasing a product using it. Only the Linux kernel is GPL'ed(which Android uses), and Google have already released the source code for that. This situation with Apple is entirely different as it's not just a withdrawal from open-source initiatives that the Apache and other BSD licences does permit. It's a direct violation of the LGPL licence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiagosilva29 Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 Released, but apparently... it is still not in compliance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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