On Wed, 3 Mar 2010 10:31 pm, Platonides wrote:
fl wrote:
I would disagree. The Wikimedia software has
been released under an
open
source license: While the WMF certainly has no obligation to improve
the
software, they most definately have an obligation to release the
source
code to third-parties.
Wrong. They do it, and it's consistent with their mission, but they
have
no obligation to do that. They could even have MediaWiki be closed
source software.
No, they can't. As far as I am aware, MediaWiki is released under the
GNU General Public License[1], which stipulates, among other things, the
requirement to release a program's source code to the public and to
release any derived changes under the same license[2].
If the WMF were to try and convert MediaWiki to a closed source project,
they would be liable to legal actions against them.
[1]
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Version
[2]
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
--
fl