Does your newsroom have a policy on GPL tools?

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I’m genuinely curious about whether there are newsrooms with a firm policy that you can’t build on GPL code. I’ve heard stories, I know it is NY Times policy. Anyone else working in such an environment?

Tags: asked June 9, 2010
Amanda Hickman
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  2. I’d also love to know what you think about it, but I really just want to get a handle on how widespread such policies are.

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3 Answers

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Regarding Megan's question in a comment above, the main reason for policies prohibiting building upon GPL code is uncertainty regarding how the "viral" nature of the license might sneak up later. In brief, code which modifies other GPL code requires that the source code of the modifications be released under the same license, and some shops don't want to do that.

For about ten years I've generally gone on the understanding that most of the risks of the GPL have to do with software that is distributed (as in "download this and run it") I've been involved only in software which is hosted on web sites. My unvetted-by-lawyers belief is that hosted web applications just aren't subject to those rules. Now, if you sell your web application later, and it was built with GPL software… then you probably have to release your source code.

Joe Germuska
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  1. Joe: you’re definitely right about web apps. If you’re not redistributing stuff you’ve built on GPL code, you don’t have to distribute your changes.

    If you’re hosting software for other folks (I can pay for Drupal hosting, for instance) the Affero GPL might apply: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html but only if it does. Which is to say, it is a different license from the GPL.

  2. To clarify for everyone, here’s why you’re right about web apps not being subject to the GPL rules: If you build on GPL code and distribute or sell the software itself, then your derivative work must also be released under the GPL (as a stipulation of your ability to redistribute someone else’s work). But when I make a web app that builds on a GPL project and put it on my web site, I’m not distributing the source code – I’m distributing the output of that source code (the rendered HTML), and thus the GPL doesn’t have to apply to my work. The GPL sees me as an end-user, not a distributor.

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If this is more a poll than anything, we gladly build on GPL code. And by "we" I mean both Spare Change News and ITKnowledgeExchange.com, both of which are built on GPL code.

From meetups, I know that IDG runs a bunch of GPL-based (Drupal, in their case) sites, as does Morris Communications:

So in nice list form:

  • TechTarget (SearchNetworking.com, etc., ITKnowledgeExchange.com, many more)
  • Spare Change News (non-profit 501c3)
  • Morris Communications (13 daily newspaper, including Bluffton Today, and other pubs)
  • IDG (PCWorld, CIO.com, CIO Magazine, many more)

Also, doesn't the NYTimes run some stuff on WordPress (which is GPL)? The sites above all do heavy modifications to their code, but I think (editorializing here!) banning GPL from development is a bit insane.

Michael Morisy
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