Aral Balkan

Doug McCune is reporting that there is a clause in the Widget Design Challenge 2008 contest being run by eBay that bars entrants from using open source libraries in their entries.

The actual clause follows:

Widget may not incorporate any open source code except for Adobe Flex under the MPL license

This is not good.

I cannot think of any project I've worked on in my career, going as far back as I can remember, that did not use open source code in some capacity. Heck, we owe "Web 2.0" and the web as we know it to open source (can you imagine Google being what it is today while running its huge server farms on Windows Server?) Open source is everywhere, both behind the scenes (powering operating systems, application servers, and databases) and in front (Wordpress, Papervision3D, MediaWiki, etc.) When I was still doing client work, I wouldn't take on any project with a "no open source" clause. Life's too short. And I have much better things to do than reinvent the wheel.

The Flash Platform is blessed when it comes to open source. You can find quite a comprehensive list of open source Flash projects on OSFlash. It makes no sense whatsoever to guarantee a reduction in the quality of entries by disallowing developers access to these amazing tools.

Doug sums up what developers will be missing out nicely in his post:

That means no 3D engines, no physics engines, no custom component libraries. If you wanted 3D you’d have to build your own custom 3D engine. Umm, no thanks. It’s funny because they make the explicit exception for the Flex framework, since if they didn’t do that you wouldn’t be able to make any Flex app at all.

I know this must just be a legal clause that slipped by the Flash team at eBay who are organizing the contest. Now that it has been unearthed, I have no doubt that eBay will swiftly rectify the situation and allow open source libraries and tools to be used in the contest.

As Spock would say, "it's only logical, captain." (Yeah, I gotta lay off the Star Trek books, I know!)

Comments

• So I did talk to someone from eBay and they are in the process of altering the rules to allow code with MIT and new BSD licenses. They are also going to raise the file size limit from 200k to 400k. Hopefully these changes will make it into the terms of the contest early next week. With those changes making a Flex app is actually doable :)

  by Doug McCune on 2008-01-26 18:29:18

• "Ebay clearly want to own and sell on the winner’s widget" That's the thing. And it's sad because IT (web, desktop, you name it) won't be the same without Open Source. Probably eBay won't be the same. I'm not planning to participate, but i really hope they change their minds.

  by Zarate on 2008-01-24 07:43:34

• Hi David, There definitely is a lot of GPL code out there but most _libraries_ are licensed under MIT or BSD licenses, which allow developers to use them in open, closed, non-commercial, and commercial projects, or LGPL (a license specifically for libraries). I wouldn't have a problem with their not allowing GPL code in the contest. But excluding all open source just does not make sense.

  by Aral on 2008-01-24 08:34:23

• Hey Aral: I read Doug's blog yesterday and immediately forwarded it to the eBay team. They contacted Doug and talked to him on the phone, and are now working with their legal department to change things. Mike

  by Mike Potter on 2008-01-24 14:35:57

• This looks like a fun contest, if they didn't have that restriction. I'll be watching this to see if it's lifted. In that case I might work on an entry.

  by Paul Mayne on 2008-01-24 00:22:19

• As I understand it, most open source stuff is covered by the GPL, which requires that any developments made using that open source material must itself be open source. Ebay clearly want to own and sell on the winner's widget, which will be difficult to do if potential buyers have the right to request the free source of the widget. If the rules are changed, it'll likely be only to allow open source libraries covered by the LGPL (which allows code using the library to be closed source).

  by David Arno on 2008-01-24 06:50:20

• This doesn't look like a contest, it's more a cheap way for eBay to get as many designs as possible and eventually only pay 10k for it. The competition's licensing terms show that by entering this competition you give all the intellectual property rights to eBay, which excludes any open source software, whether it's MIT or GPL, because these licenses force you to acknowledge the creator's copyright, and because eBay wants to own all of that copyright after you submit your widget, open source projects are excluded. I don't see how eBay's legal department can work around these open source license requirements. Allowing open source software means eBay loses all IP and their chance to monetize the widget?

  by Thijs on 2008-01-24 18:41:07

• Hi Thijs, Allowing open source does _not_ mean that eBay loses all IP or their change to monetize the widget. It means that they do not own all of the IP -- this is not the same thing. For instance, if you use Papervision3D or the Arp framework in your project (both of which are licensed under MIT), all you have to do is leave the copyright notice in the source and credit the original authors. You can sell your amazing widget for $1,000,000,000 if you want :) The actual license is important. Stick to using libraries that are released under MIT (or BSD) and you'll be fine. And eBay has nothing to lose and lots to gain by allowing use of open source libraries released under these licenses.

  by Aral on 2008-01-24 22:32:12

• Hi Mike, Good news! Glad to hear eBay handling this. I knew it could not have been more than an oversight.

  by Aral on 2008-01-24 22:33:10

• Hi Aral, I didn't meant to say 'all IP', I meant some of the IP, due to the copyright notice in the source and the credit they have to give to the authors. I expect that this very small requirement is enough for them to rule it out entirely? I was wondering why it would be excluded in the first place..

  by Thijs on 2008-01-24 23:54:05

• Great news, Doug. Happy to hear it!

  by Aral on 2008-01-27 11:25:57

• Thanks, Sunny!

  by Aral on 2008-01-31 23:00:40

• One thing you can use for ebay selling is the vend-o-matic template that does all the work for you .

  by fortune8one on 2008-07-28 01:46:41

• Hi Aral and gang, I am happy to announce the rules have been updated to better accommodate the Flex community. Thank you all for voicing out and helping us produce better contests. We aim to make such experiences fun and rewarding. The changes to our rules are detailed in our blog post. We look forward to some really amazing entries. http://developer.ebay.com/community/blog/

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