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Apple is accused of withholding IOS LGPL code

Keeping Webkit for itself
Mon May 09 2011, 14:09

MAKER OF SHINY TOYS Apple has been accused of holding back source code it used in IOS 4.3 that was licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL).

Apple has in the past been quick to publish code it obtained from the BSD and LGPL licenses with every major release of Mac OS X or IOS. However since IOS 4.3 Apple has held onto the source code for certain applications, leading developers to cry foul.

Since IOS 4.3, Apple has yet to release the source code for Webkit and its Javascript Core, software that powers Apple's Safari web browser. Apple released IOS 4.3 on 9 March, along with three subsequent updates, yet Apple's source code website still says that the Webkit source code is "coming soon".

Well known open source developer Harald Welte called on Apple to shape up and release its source code sooner rather than later. Writing on his blog, Welte said, "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."

Welte's request for Apple to release its source code is not just to maintain LGPL compliance but also to help developers work with Apple's latest revisions.

Given the vast amount of code that Apple has already released under its own licence, as well as under the LGPL and the BSD licences, it is surprising that the cappuccino company is withholding the source code for certain software. It will be interesting to see if Jobs' Mob listens to the software development community. µ

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Comments
@emdc: Yes it is

Yes it is beneath the INQ to degrade their journalistic writing standards--and grammatical standards as a whole--by spelling proper nouns in completely backwards ways. Really, what is next? Spelling company names in all lowercase because their logo is spelled that way? No, that would be equally as stupid.

If you don't like it, perhaps you'd be more at home on an Apple forum with all the other people with degraded capitalization skills.

posted by : BB, 09 May 2011 Complain about this comment
So exactly what

is the problem with downloading the Webkit source direct from the webkit site (http://www.webkit.org/ that Apple host) where it's updated nightly. Only the iOS specific bits are missing, and under the iOS developer license you're not allowed to use other than the compiled web browser code built into iOS anyway, so you don't need that source. It's even debatable if they need to provide those bits under the LGPL, which allows for code that uses LGPL libraries but doesn't need to be published under the LGPL it's self.

posted by : Steve T, 09 May 2011 Complain about this comment
WTF?

IOS?

It's properly referred to as iOS.
Is typing a lower case i beneath you?

posted by : emdc, 09 May 2011 Complain about this comment
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