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