Launchpad - closed source

[Toby Smithe]

On Mon, 2006-11-06 at 09:45 -0500, Andrew Zajac wrote:
> On 11/5/06, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> >
> > By open sourcing LP *before* this purpose is fully achieved by the
> > software, other projects would be able to setup different instances of
> > it, and the benefits of sharing a single resource would be lost. Maybe,
> > once LP has perfected sharing between projects, and gradually as more
> > projects begin to realise its potential, this risk will no longer exist,
> > and more and more code can be open sourced, which as the LP faq
> > explains, is a real aim for those working on it.
> >
> > Matt
>
> Free software is free because of the terms by which it is distributed.
>  A free licence makes the software free - the licence is between the
> author of the software and the person who downloads the application.
> 
> Launchpad is not distributed.  No one else runs it but Canonical, so
> there is no such licence that comes into play.

This question makes me ask whether it should be open source... Does it
need it? I'm all in favour of it, but I don't really see much need if
the only people to use it are Canonical. It's not like vBulletin, which
has many users...

But then again, all the APIs should be open, even if the actual software
isn't. And non-distributable source should be available on demand...

> 
> The question is whether Canoncal is being a good citizen by not
> distributing the code under a GPL-compatible licence even though the
> goal is to not have more than one launchpad up and running.
> 

But then, I doubt that they are...