¿MyBooo plagia a EyeOS?

EyeOS es una aplicación web que actúa como un escritorio clásico de un sistema operativo y es software libre al estar licenciado bajo GPL.

La licencia GPL usa el copyright para permitir usos que el copyright normalmente quita al usuario para que los tenga en exclusiva el desarrollador dándole la vuelta y llamado a menudo (con un poco de sarcasmo creo encontrarle) copyleft. Esos usos son el permitir la copia, distribución y modificación siempre que se respete la autoría y que los trabajos derivados (aquellos que han usado inicialmente el código licenciado como GPL) también sean licenciados bajo GPL.

Pau Garcia-Milà, desarrollador de EyeOS, ha aviso por correo electrónico a Wwwhat’s New (y yo me entero por Bitelia) de que MyBooo puede haber copiado el código de EyeOS 0.9 y borrado las notas de copyright/autoría.

A diferencia de la versión 3 de la GPL o la licencia Affero — una licencia derivada de la GNU GPL usada por ejemplo en menéame — la obligación de ofrecer el código fuente es sólo si distribuyes el software binario por lo que si EyeOS todavía usa GNU GPL 2 aunque la gente de MyBooo haga modificaciones no están obligados a liberarlos.

Es decir: de ser cierto actualmente MyBooo viola la licencia al borrar todas las notas de autoría. Lo cual ya es bastante grave pero al ser un servicio web no tiene porque liberar modificaciones. En cualquier caso el software libre tiene un fuerte componente ético: parte de su comunidad y de su espíritu depende de la ética y para muchos el software libre es bueno porque es justo y no solamente por cuestiones técnicas (aquí se ve una clara diferencia de mentalidad entre el software libre y el open source).

Es por eso que cosas como este posible plagio no sólo son reprochables por cuestiones de copyright / derechos si no por menospreciar a una comunidad tomando parte de su trabajo sin siquiera decir dar las gracias.

Actualización (18:12): acabo de recibir un comentario de un tal Jeremy que es un copy&paste de lo que ha dicho y se puede ver también en otros blogs que tratan el tema, comentario donde comenta su punto de vista… en inglés. Considero una pequeña falta de educación dirigirse en inglés a un sitio en castellano (e igual a la inversa) pero entiendo los motivos y por ello lo comento.

Si hubiera leído castellano (de haber podido) habría visto que aquí también hemos comentado que si no distribuye el programa no tiene obligación ninguna de liberar los cambios. También es interesante ver que reconoce que el proyecto inicialmente se basó en EyeOS pero que ahora no y que lo del Javascript según él fue por un compresor de javascript, aunque quedan bastantes puntos que no me quedan claros.

Por ejemplo, no me queda claro si es legal basarse en un proyecto y luego de unos cambios ya pasar de la mención “porque ya no es lo mismo” (tocaría saber si los cambios son una reescritura desde cero o no).

2 Comentarios (feed)

1. Jeremy nos comenta:
   

   Today few developers of EyeOs cummunity who spread a rumor in the Blogs and have shamefully attacked MyBooo. They mentioned and I quote “stolen their code and broken the GPL(General Public Licence)”. We DO NOT appreciate this kind of slander and insult to our work via Web.

   We are totally transparent with our sources and we have never intended nor thought of stealing the codes of EyeOS.

   We confirm on the other hand that we have used a small part of EyeOS for developing MyBooo. We have found a small part, again a small part only, of EyeOS code useful to use hence we had integrated it to our system rather than re-developing the same. We were also encouraged that our project is compatible to them in case of any future partnership (which has been largely breached because of false accusations of our open source vision).

   We would like to extend our deep apologies to EyeOS to have felt “cheated” but again this was never our intention. The site is still under development, it has only been a week since we have started to put it online and for BETA testing hence private access, through invitation only, if I may reiterate.

   Nevertheless, we esteem that the minimum action that should have been done is to get in contact with us directly instead of propagating false rumor without confronting us first.

   For all those who have tested MyBooo and EyeOS, they can certainly see the difference between the two systems. Let me give me some examples myself; file management; general look and feel, right click possibility, window systems, drag and drop option etc. To come up with this big difference, we have developed and redeveloped the modules and add big innovations that we own. With all the codes that we created for MyBooo, only 5% is identical to EyeOS. I don’t think this can be considered stolen codes.

   Having explained our part, we would like to emphasize that we opposed this method of critizing our hard work. This is difficult to accept especially coming from this community pretending to be the open source when hard to admit is using disgracefully Microsoft itself.

   We are profoundly disgraced by the way some developers of this community dishonor our work. We have never received any mail asking us for explanation of any sort. These “developers” prefer to attack us through Web instead of contacting us directly. This is a clear sign of uncertainly of accusations, which we will never tolerate.

   For your information, the principles The (GPL) objective is not to extort work from developers but to enhance technologies. All this through sharing the development workload but also permitting to keep the private code (Fork principle). This should lead in creation of market around the technology and propose commercial offers. When these “developers” pretend to attack us of breaching the open license source and have distributed us the codes, we asked them to make sure they understand what GPL means before accusing us or anyone for that matter. Again, let me reiterate that MyBooo is also in GPL….

   When we are accused of suppressing a copyright, we would like to remind everyone that there is clearly a big difference between compression_____ of JavaScript and stealing a program.

   We have not sold out our codes hence we need not need to redistribute our sources. We do not wish to be totally open source since there is already one existing EyeOS. They do it well. We also believe that it is important in the WebOS market to also have the Fork commercial that will serve as the open source.

   If the developers of EyeOS cannot comprehend this approach, they need to change the license to state that modifications should be automatically required to be re-allocated. This is not the case at this time with the GPL that they are currently using.

   Lynxoft and MyBooo have always been loyal to open source but with allegations such as this one, we are profoundly disappointed. Despite all this, we will continue to enhance the open source solution, as we believe in this mode of development.

   For Information: Lynxoft is the first training ground enterprise Open Source in France. Our own developers are actve members of KDE and Mandriva community. We therefore are very much aware of the rules and benefits of Open Source.

   PS : We would like to thank RoundCube and Dojo who understands our approach and let us enhance their vision instead of accusing us of stealers.

   Instead of a long speech, I invite you to test MyBooo and EyeOS for you to know the difference!

   Jueves, 14 de Junio/2007 @ 18:35

2. german nos comenta:
   

   Boicot a MyBooo. No valen las escusas y “el que se ataja pierde”

   Domingo, 17 de Junio/2007 @ 1:54

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