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 From : Sergey Lentsov                       2:4615/71.10   18 Oct 2001  16:13:51
 To : All
 Subject : URL: http://www.lwn.net/2001/1018/
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    Here is the [35]permanent site for this page.
    
    See also: [36]last week's LWN.
    
 Leading items and editorials
 
    The Liberty Alliance launches. [37]Back in July LWN (and many others)
    expressed concern about Microsoft's "HailStorm" scheme, which looked
    like it could concentrate control of user identity and authentication
    in one place. In our opinion, no single organization should have that
    degree of control over how people deal with each other on the net.
    
    It has taken a while, but a credible alternative to HailStorm has just
    [38]announced its existence. The [39]Liberty Alliance is made up of an
    interesting and varied group of organizations. At one end of the
    spectrum, one sees groups like the Apache Software Foundation,
    CollabNet, and O'Reilly & Associates. Those groups can be trusted to
    work toward a set of protocols that preserve freedom and openness, but
    they lack the influence required to bring about the adoption of a new
    set of protocols by themselves.
    
    So it is an encouraging sign that the Liberty Alliance also includes
    companies like the Bank of America, United Airlines, General Motors,
    Dun and Bradstreet, and many others. The members' claim that they
    "currently represent over a billion network identities" may be a bit
    of a stretch, but it is true that they have the commercial strength
    required to push a new standard. The presence of companies like Nokia
    and NTT DoCoMo makes it likely that standards from the Liberty
    Alliance will have an advantage in the mobile arena as well.
    
    It is perhaps not surprising that the Alliance web pages carry a Sun
    Microsystems copyright.
    
    Exactly what the Alliance will do remains somewhat vague at this
    stage. The web site lists these goals:
      * To allow individual consumers and businesses to maintain personal
        information securely.
      * To provide a universal open standard for single sign-on with
        decentralized authentication and open authorization from multiple
        providers.
      * To provide an open standard for network identity spanning all
        network devices.
        
    These goals sound like a good start: enabling the next generation of
    network commerce while building in open standards and decentralized
    authentication. A lot of questions remain open, however. How will
    these standards be adopted - what is the decision making process? Will
    there be W3C-style problems with the inclusion of patented technology?
    What privacy safeguards will be built in? Who will be able to run an
    authentication service? Will the member companies show enough
    commitment that this endeavor will be more than a short-lived, Sun-led
    charge against Microsoft? And so on.
    
    It is not surprising that a lot of questions are unanswered at this
    point; the Alliance is just getting started. The coming months will
    tell us whether this group is serious about security,
    decentralization, and openness, or whether it's just another power
    play in its own right. In the mean time, the Alliance is soliciting
    additional members; companies with an interest in the future of
    network commerce and freedom should consider signing up so that their
    voices can be heard.
    
    Not-quite-free licenses: a bad thing? The free software community
    tends to see licenses in a very polarized way. Software is either
    free, or it is proprietary, and the discussion tends to end there. The
    truth is, however, that there are a number of in-between licenses that
    provide some, but not all, of the freedoms of licenses that meet the
    Open Source Definition. Such licenses include:
      * The Sun Community Source License,
      * The sort-of licenses that accompany Danial Bernstein's code
        (qmail, djbdns),
      * The ghostscript license,
      * The Open Motif License,
        
    ...and many more, including, even, perhaps, Microsoft's "shared
    source" license. Every one of these licenses makes source code
    available to licensees, but restricts the user's freedom in one way or
    another.
    
    Restricted licenses of this variety tend to draw a great deal of
    criticism from the free software community. In fact, the reaction to a
    hybrid license can be far more harsh than the reaction to a purely
    proprietary, no-source license. The end result can only be a greater
    polarization of licenses: they either go fully free, or fully closed.
    Some members of the community seem to prefer that code remain closed
    rather than become half free. Does this result really benefit the
    community?
    
    Certainly, much useful software has been developed and released under
    hybrid licenses. Consider Qt, ghostscript, qmail, bitkeeper, and so
    on. Modern distributions tend not to include xv, but it was a highly
    useful tool for many for a very long time. Even the Linux kernel was
    not completely free in its (very) early days. It would be difficult to
    argue that the community is not better off for the presence of that
    software.
    
    Companies and individuals who release software under hybrid licenses
    are trying to strike a balance that works for them: somehow they would
    like to make money while providing (and enjoying) the benefits of
    making the source available. In an economy where pure open source
    companies are, for the most part, having a hard time surviving, some
    experiments with mixed licenses may well be called for.
    
    Software licenses should, properly, meet the needs of both the
    producers and users of the code. Free software remains the best
    software, and, in many (if not most) situations, fully free licensing
    will be the best choice. But if the owner of some code decides that a
    not-quite-free license is needed, the community should give them the
    benefit of the doubt and refrain from excess criticism. As long as
    such software is not presented as being free, and does not violate the
    license of any other package, its existence harms nobody and could be
    beneficial to many. After all, if the license does not work for any
    individual user, they are not forced to run the code.
    
    Red Hat acquires VA Linux consulting group. Red Hat has [40]announced
    that it has picked up VA Linux System's open source consulting group.
    This group no longer has a place in VA's new view of its business, so
    it's good that they found a new place to land. They have, apparently,
    brought much of their business with them. A list of the people
    involved can be found in [41]this Linux Journal article.
    
    Next steps in W3C patent policy proposal. Here's [42]an announcement
    from the W3C on how it will proceed with its patent policy. It
    includes the appointment of Bruce Perens and Eben Moglen to the patent
    policy board. There will be another public comment period before the
    policy is finalized, and more information will be shared with the
    public on this process.
    
    In other words, this battle is far from over, but there are some good
    signs that things are going in the right direction. The W3C has heard
    the comments from the community, and is apparently taking them
    seriously. The situation bears watching, but it may just come to a
    happy ending.
    
    On LWN's future.... not much to report, as yet. We have gotten much
    useful feedback from our readers on [43]our mailing list; we still
    encourage others to drop in and let us know what you think. One way or
    another, we plan to continue to be here for our readers.
    
    We have noticed a distinct increase in people pulling down the entire
    LWN site since last week. In many cases, those downloads are probably
    unnecessary; no matter what happens, the LWN archives are not going to
    disappear abruptly from the net. There is no need for massive copying
    of the LWN site to keep that information from going away, we promise.
    
    Inside this LWN.net weekly edition:
      * [44]Security: Aleph1 passes the Bugtraq baton, Microsoft against
        disclosure.
      * [45]Kernel: News from the VM front; fun with module symbols.
      * [46]Distributions: The Common Linux Installer Group; Progeny
        Debian is no more.
      * [47]Development: Open Source BIOS Projects, MySQL 4.0, Samba
        2.2.2, GNU Bayonne telephone system, new Mozilla and Galeon, Manta
        fast Java compiler.
      * [48]Commerce: SafeDisc LT copy protection comes to Linux;
        Trolltech releases Qt 3.0; Navy to Test the Water With Open-Source
        Software.
      * [49]History: Jonathan Postel dies; LinuxToday acquired by
        Internet.com; Sun released Open Office.
      * [50]Letters: 2.5, ending the monopoly.
        
    ...plus the usual array of reports, updates, and announcements.
    
    This Week's LWN was brought to you by:
      * [51]Jonathan Corbet, Executive Editor
        
    October 18, 2001
    
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    [55]Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! Copyright Л 2001 [56]Eklektix, Inc.,
    all rights reserved
    Linux (R) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
 
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    6. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/devel.php3
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    9. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/announce.php3
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   21. http://linux.tucows.com/
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   23. http://unixthemes.tucows.com/
   24. http://lwn.net/2001/features/oreilly2001/
   25. http://lwn.net/2001/features/OLS/
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   28. http://lwn.net/2001/features/Singapore
   29. http://lwn.net/2001/features/djbdns.php3
   30. http://lwn.net/2001/features/linuxworldny/
   31. http://lwn.net/2001/features/JHaas/
   32. http://lwn.net/2001/features/LarryWall/
   33. http://lwn.net/2001/features/Momjian/
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   35. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/
   36. http://lwn.net/2001/1011/
   37. http://lwn.net/2001/0704/
   38.
 http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-26-200
 1/0001579753&EDATE=
   39. http://projectliberty.org/
   40.
 http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?bw.101701/212902084&ticker=RH
 AT
   41. http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/articles/briefs/0085.html
   42.
 http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/2001Oct/1559.html
   43. http://vena.lwn.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion
   44. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/security.php3
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   47. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/devel.php3
   48. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/commerce.php3
   49. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/history.php3
   50. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/letters.php3
   51. mailto:lwn@lwn.net
   52. http://ads.tucows.com/click.ng/buttonpos=lwnbutton125top
   53. http://ads.tucows.com/click.ng/buttonpos=125-001-016
   54. http://lwn.net/2001/1018/security.php3
   55. http://www.eklektix.com/
   56. http://www.eklektix.com/
 
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