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Playing God
Scary eugenics documents from the turn of the century shine a disturbing light on ethical dilemmas raised by genetic testing.
By Kristi Coale
[11/17/99]

How the Web was almost won
Just how close did we come to a Net ruled by Microsoft? The "server wars" show a grim counterpart to the browser wars.
By Tim O'Reilly
[11/16/99]

Technology: View from the top
The accidental entertainer
Rob Burgess wasn't chasing cartoons -- but with Macromedia's Flash and Shockwave enabling a faux broadband experience, he's suddenly tight with Stan Lee.
By John Geirland
[11/15/99]

Direct mail double cross?
A fight over opt-in marketing has anti-spam activists crying foul.
By Deborah Scoblionkov
[11/12/99]

You're_a_Loser.com
Behind (and beneath) every Internet gazillionaire is an army of downtrodden "NetSlaves."
By Janelle Brown
[11/11/99]

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Most media attention -- and public Red Hat statements -- has focused on the "synergy" created by the merger of the two companies. Red Hat assembles distributions (packages of Linux-based operating systems); Cygnus creates advanced programming tools and software aimed at the fast-growing "embedded systems" niche. But Cygnus programmers are also central to the ongoing development of at least two pieces of software -- the GNU compiler and the GNU C libraries -- that are absolutely essential to any Linux-based operating system. The compiler -- usually referred to as "gcc" -- is a tool that translates software programs into a form understandable by a computer. The C libraries contain code that is used and reused by software applications, such as graphic elements that appear in multiple applications.

All GNU (an acronym for "GNU's not Unix") software, as well as the Linux kernel itself, is protected by the GNU General Public License (or GPL). The GPL, conceived by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation, is the bedrock upon which vast amounts of free software stands firm -- the GPL ensures that the underlying source code to a software program will be freely available to the general public. Cygnus and Red Hat have long been two companies with excellent reputations for "GPL-ing" most of the software that their programmers produce. But just protecting software with the GPL isn't enough, say some free software advocates -- there's also the all-important issue of exactly who owns the copyright to that software.

Cygnus employees work under a "company rider" or blanket agreement, that automatically assigns the copyright for several key free-software programs, like gcc and the C libraries, to the Free Software Foundation, (while  retaining the copyright for some programs). Red Hat has a similar agreement in place covering software for which the original copyright is owned by the FSF.

Why is this important? The owner of the copyright has the right to change the terms of the license under which the software is distributed. Any code that has at one time been protected by the GPL will still always be freely available, but new versions of that code could conceivably be released under different terms, even, potentially, as proprietary, closed-source software. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is considered by most programmers to be highly unlikely to perpetrate any such license changes for the software to which it holds the copyright. But Red Hat is now a publicly traded corporation beholden, in the long run, to profit-hungry shareholders. Who can predict what will happen to such a company?

No one is accusing Red Hat of having actual plans to change the terms of the license under which it produces and distributes software. It is also unclear whether Red Hat will alter Cygnus' company policy with respect to the software that Cygnus programmers create. There's even a case to be made that Red Hat respects the sanctity of free software more than Cygnus. While Red Hat distributes virtually all of the new software its programmers write under the GPL, Cygnus has for several years been experimenting with a range of licenses for its software, and has several closed-source products.

Still, to some observers, the question of copyright and licensing -- the question, ultimately, of who controls the GNU software developers -- is the single most important question in the world of free software. Red Hat now bestrides that world, more than ever before, like a colossus. Even if most individual free-software developers appear unconcerned with the implications of the Red Hat-Cygnus merger, corporate competitors to Red Hat might have reason to be nervous.

Next page | Does Dr. Evil work at Red Hat?