Do we need a new FOSS license?

Come on, admit it: You've been involved in at least one (probably 3 or more) licensing "discussions" with your fellow FOSS peers. :P Like you probably already know (and like I covered in one of my previous posts), these "discussions" revolve mainly around whether or not the GPL is, in fact, a truly free license. I'm not going to discuss that here (for brevity), but what I will discuss is whether an "compromise" license that sits right between the GPL and a permissive license in terms of restrictions is possible.

First, we need to know what our new license can and cannot do. According to the Open Source Definition (which you can read for yourself here), here are some things our new license couldn't do:

• Prevent commercial re-distribution. Commercial re-distribution is very different from proprietary re-distribution, by the way


• Prevent (possibly derivative) products issued under the same license as ours


• Restrict other software distributed on the same medium as ours

Okay, so now we now what we can't do, let's figure out what we can do.

• The biggest problem most people have with the GPL is that it prevents other, non-GPL, FOSS software from using GPL'ed products (because the licenses are incompatible). We need to figure out a way to solve this issue in order to come up with a true "compromise" license.


• The counter-argument against permissive licenses is that they allow proprietary derivatives of your project. Whether or not this is an issue is completely up to you, but for the purposes of this post, I'll assume the answer is "yes."


• The Open Source Definition does allow open-source licenses to "pick and choose" what derivative projects can be licensed under; the most notable open-source license that does this is the GPL - you can derive from a GPL product and use the AGPL for your code if you so choose

What if we could allow anyone to derive from a product licensed under our hypothetical license as long as they used our new license, or an OSI-approved license? While this has the obvious disadvantage of preventing a BSD-licensed project which uses our hypothetical project from being used in a proprietary product, it's a pretty big step towards an actual "compromise" license.

That's as good a compromise as I can think of for now. Hopefully I can think of a better one in the future. :)

Setting up MinGW32 on Ubuntu

Finally, a non-controversial topic :)

Having a cross-compiler that can compile Windows executables on a Linux machine can be an extremely useful tool to have, since it prevents you from having to install WINE or a virtual machine just to generate Windows executables for your software project. I find myself often in need of such a tool, and since there doesn't seem to be any up-to-date tutorial on how to set up a MinGW32 cross-compiler, I decided to write one. :)

Okay, so here we go: First, install the gcc-mingw32 package with the following command:

sudo apt-get install gcc-mingw32

And we're basically finished. To use your newly-installed cross-compiler, use the following command:

i586-mingw32msvc-gcc

As a final finishing touch, I add a soft link that allows me to access my new cross-compiler with shorter name, like so:

ln -s $(which i586-mingw32msvc-gcc) gcc-mingw32

If you execute that command in your $HOME/bin directory (assuming, of course, that that directory is on your $PATH), you can access your cross-compiler via gcc-mingw32 instead of the longer i586-mingw32msvc-gcc.

Let's test our cross-compiler on a simple piece of software: Lua 5.1. I'll assume you've already unpacked Lua into some convenient directory, and have opened a terminal there. I'll also assume you made the soft link I talked about earlier, but that's no big deal - if you didn't, just replace gcc-mingw32 with i586-mingw32msvc-gcc.

Lua makes things easy on us by having 99% of the compiler options already set up for us; we just have to tell it where to find our cross-compiler - otherwise, it will find the non-cross-compiling installation of GCC:

make mingw CC=gcc-mingw32

That wasn't too hard either. :) Here's what that command outputs on my system:

cd src && make mingw
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/(my username)/Downloads/lua-5.1/src'
make "LUA_A=lua51.dll" "LUA_T=lua.exe" \
"AR=gcc-mingw32 -shared -o" "RANLIB=strip --strip-unneeded" \
"MYCFLAGS=-DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL" "MYLIBS=" "MYLDFLAGS=-s" lua.exe
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/(my username)/Downloads/lua-5.1/src'
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lua.o lua.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lapi.o lapi.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lcode.o lcode.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ldebug.o ldebug.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ldo.o ldo.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ldump.o ldump.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lfunc.o lfunc.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lgc.o lgc.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o llex.o llex.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lmem.o lmem.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lobject.o lobject.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lopcodes.o lopcodes.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lparser.o lparser.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lstate.o lstate.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lstring.o lstring.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ltable.o ltable.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ltm.o ltm.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lundump.o lundump.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lvm.o lvm.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lzio.o lzio.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lauxlib.o lauxlib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lbaselib.o lbaselib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ldblib.o ldblib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o liolib.o liolib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lmathlib.o lmathlib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o loslib.o loslib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o ltablib.o ltablib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o lstrlib.o lstrlib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o loadlib.o loadlib.c
gcc-mingw32 -O2 -Wall -DLUA_BUILD_AS_DLL -c -o linit.o linit.c
gcc-mingw32 -shared -o lua51.dll lapi.o lcode.o ldebug.o ldo.o ldump.o lfunc.o lgc.o llex.o lmem.o lobject.o lopcodes.o lparser.o lstate.o lstring.o ltable.o ltm.o lundump.o lvm.o lzio.o lauxlib.o lbaselib.o ldblib.o liolib.o lmathlib.o loslib.o ltablib.o lstrlib.o loadlib.o linit.o
strip --strip-unneeded lua51.dll
gcc-mingw32 -o lua.exe -s lua.o lua51.dll -lm
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/(my username/Downloads/lua-5.1/src'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/(my username/Downloads/lua-5.1/src'

Hey, looked like it worked. Let's try running our new executable with WINE:

wine src/lua.exe
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x100778a, 0x100a060, {485e7de8-0a80-11d8-ad15-505054503030}, 1, 0x33fe00, (null), (null), 0x100a068,): stub
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x100778a, 0x100a080, {485e7de9-0a80-11d8-ad15-505054503030}, 1, 0x33fe00, (null), (null), 0x100a088,): stub
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x100778a, 0x100a0a0, {485e7dea-0a80-11d8-ad15-505054503030}, 1, 0x33fe00, (null), (null), 0x100a0a8,): stub
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x100778a, 0x100a0c0, {485e7deb-0a80-11d8-ad15-505054503030}, 1, 0x33fe00, (null), (null), 0x100a0c8,): stub
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x100778a, 0x100a0e0, {485e7dec-0a80-11d8-ad15-505054503030}, 1, 0x33fe00, (null), (null), 0x100a0e8,): stub
fixme:advapi:RegisterTraceGuidsW (0x100778a, 0x100a100, {485e7ded-0a80-11d8-ad15-505054503030}, 1, 0x33fe00, (null), (null), 0x100a108,): stub
fixme:win:RegisterDeviceNotificationW (hwnd=0x14fae8, filter=0x65e93c,flags=0x00000001) returns a fake device notification handle!
Lua 5.1 Copyright (C) 1994-2006 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
>


And there you have it: We went step-by-step through the process of installing MinGW32, adding a convenience soft link, and compiling a simple piece of software - Lua.

Happy cross-compiling!

On piracy

Yes, another controversial topic: Piracy. It's pretty prevalent today - you probably know at least 5 people that have pirated software, and you might have pirated some software yourself; I myself have pirated software in the past, albeit before I knew of the legal and moral issues surrounding it.

So what makes piracy so popular? The most obvious reason is you get a piece of software you'd normally have to pay for for free, and everyone loves that. Except the people who wrote the software, and that's what this short essay is going to be about.

First let's get our terms straight: What is piracy? It's basically the act of downloading a copy of a piece of software that was not made by the software's author - in other words, copyright infringement. Now, is there anything legally wrong with piracy? Quite a bit. How about morally? Er, that's not so clear in some cases.

When you pirate a piece of software that's still being distributed in some legal form, you're basically saying: "Mr. Software Author, I like the software you wrote, but I don't like xxx about it (price, DRM, etc...). Shame on you, so I'm going to take your software and use it for free." I can't really see any way to justify this line of thinking, at least from Mr. Software Author's point of view.

You might say you're not hurting Mr. Software Author by pirating his software, and you might be right, depending upon how rich he is. But that doesn't change the fact that you took something that wasn't yours. You're not entitled to Mr. Software Author's product, and if you don't want to use it the way he wants you to use it, don't use it at all.

If Mr. Software Author's product is tainted with DRM, and that's the reason you're giving for pirating his product, consider this: Will your circumvention of the DRM Mr. Software Author set in place cause him to remove the already present DRM? No - on the contrary, he'll probably add more! Instead of pirating a DRM'ed product (which is still taking something that isn't yours), support a non-DRM'ed one instead. Lack of customers will change Mr. Software Author's opinion on DRM more than anything else.

Now, what do you do in the (very common) case of software whose parent company is either defunct or no longer distributes the software in question? This is both a legal and moral gray area. I mean, technically you're still guilty of copyright infringement, but the copyright owner no longer exists, so it's a legal gray area. It's a morally gray area because while you're still taking something that really isn't yours, you're offered no alternative method to download the software in question.

What about if the parent company exists, but they no longer distribute the software in question? You often see this sort of thing happening with arcade ROMs. My personal take on this case - IANAL - is it's fine (morally so - this is a legal gray area) to pirate arcade ROMs, but only if the parent company offers no way to get the ROMs via other means. For example, Capcom offers Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the Wii Virtual Console platform, but not Street Fighter Alpha 3. So pirating Alpha 3 would be fine by me, but I wouldn't pirate Alpha 2.

I hope this essay on piracy has been an interesting read for you. I also hope it makes you think about the moral and legal implications of piracy a bit more - hey, you might even solve this whole legal mess. :)