Open Source Developer Intends To Block Belgian Government From Using His Techn... - The Diigo Meta page

• 23 May 09
  

  Patrick O'Keefe
  • Bruno Lowagie
  • iText, a free and open source library for creating and manipulating PDF, RTF, and HTML files in Java
  • 9 more annotations...
  • • Mozilla Public License with the LGPL as an alternative license
    • also available through a commercial license, distributed by iText Software
    • Pretty soon, these licenses will be updated, and Lowagie is now pondering about adding an additional restriction of usage for the product referred to as ‘The Belgian Restriction’ (Dutch): no official government-related institution in Belgium will be allowed to use iText in any of its applications and systems for any version after iText 2.2.0.
    • The restriction would include any third-party application that makes use of iText too, which means there are a lot of government bodies who would be forced to rewrite or downright replace essential systems to keep on functioning properly (from a technical standpoint, that is).
    • it could also lead to iText being barred from future Linux distributions because of the built-in restriction.
    • Apparently, Lowagie has been forced to cough up nearly 10,000 € over the past few years simply because he’s running been Google AdSense ads on his personal website, which the government erroneously classified as income from corporate activities
    • claims he would be willing to lift the restriction if the dispute were resolved in due time
    • He added that he’s not only doing this for personal attention but also to poke third-party developers who (ab)use the iText license in dubious ways.
    • Some commentators are pointing out that this restriction threat sends out the wrong message about the concept of open source, and that this could actually lead to less trust in F/OSS technology from both governments and corporations.
• 20 May 09
  

  Jonathan Bailey

  112 opensource licensing foss belgium

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