ISC considering a change to the BIND open source license

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

On 6/14/2016 11:47 AM, Mukund Sivaraman wrote:
> Hi Evan
>
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 05:45:59PM +0000, Evan Hunt wrote:
>> May I ask you to expand on why the MPL is a problem?  So far the distros
>> have all been supportive.
>
> The BSD camp dislikes copyleft because copyleft prevents exactly what
> we're trying to stop: the ability to ship a closed-source forked version
> of BIND. They think that software is more free if that is allowed,
> although they'd like all software to be free.
>
> The GNU/FSF camp's view is different. In its view, a software is more
> free if its freedom is protected and cannot be lost; hence the copyleft
> clauses.
>
> To a user of BIND, it makes no difference. To a restributor of BIND who
> keeps the modified code free, it makes no difference. Those who are hurt
> by it are those who are shipping closed-source modified versions, or
> those who'd like to let others continue to do so.
>

 From a practical perspective virtually anyone shipping a commercial 
program with modified BIND in it is almost certainly shipping an 
embedded device of some sort - a NAS or something - and they won't be 
hurt in their current product since they just won't update them.

And if they treat ISC that shabbily then how do you think they are
treating their customers - they will certainly continue to
use that older, non-copyleft version as long as it compiles.

It may be years before some of those commercial people update
their code - a license change now is not going to have immediate
effect.   Eventually one of these days the maker of
whatever CPU they are using will stop production and release a new
version with a new compiler toolkit and then they might update.

Also, has ISC realized that they just got on the biggest soapbox
they have and shouted to the world:

HEY PEEPS WE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE RELEASING NEW VERSIONS OF BIND 9
SINCE WE CARE ENOUGH ABOUT IT TO MPL IT - WE HAVE FUTURE PLANS HERE

That's very good for most people but I think they just killed BIND 10.

Ted