Created at 14:57 Jul 11, 2007 by mike, last modified at 14:57 Jul 11, 2007
CUPS was written by Michael R Sweet, an owner of Easy Software Products. In February of 2007 Apple Inc. hired Michael and acquired ownership the CUPS source code. While Michael is primarily working on non-CUPS projects, he will continue to develop and support CUPS, which is still being released under the existing GPL2/LGPL2 licensing terms. Listing
i registered just to post this. I recently found out that Apple, Inc has acquired rights, blah blah blah to CUPS. I'm a longtime user of Debian and recently ubuntu. If for some strange reason Apple decides to exclude people from using the code, or will that be possible. i know they say that it will continue to be released under gpl2. i'm not the keenest on legal terms, but what does that mean really legally for software that has integrated cups into the system like ubuntu? brilliant code by the way. Reply
Any individual or organization (like a Linux distribution) is free to use, distribute, modify, etc. the CUPS software under the CUPS license (GPL2 + LGPL2 + some exceptions). Apple can't revoke those rights or exclude people from using the current releases, just as Ubuntu can't re-license CUPS so that only Ubuntu users can use it.
since CUPS was released GPL, Apple can NOT own it. Reply
There are two kinds of ownership involved: Copyright and Lockean. Apple owns the copyrights and Michael has Lockean ownership.
Apple has essentially purchased the right to distribute CUPS under whatever license they like. They can not do anything about rights granted previous to the purchase. Happily, they have elected to continue to release new versions under the GPL. Apple also bought the trademarks on CUPS.
Michael has the exclusive right to release "official" versions of CUPS.
If he ever has a falling out with Apple, we might see the strange interaction between US trademark law and Lockean software ownership. We had exactly this case with Ethereal. The company that employed the creator claims trademark rights on the name "Ethereal". The development community, however, recognizes "Wireshark" as the _real_ Ethereal.
The Linux kernel has thousands of copyright holders (I'm one of them). But nobody contests Linus's Lockean ownership of the Linux kernel. He is the only person with the authority to release new official versions.
See "Homesteading the Noosphere" by Eric S. Raymond for a detailed discussion of this distinction. Reply
The GPL is just the license to use the code. Ownership (copyright) is separate - previously CUPS was owned by Easy Software Products, now it is owned by Apple Inc. Both companies have provided CUPS under the GPL2 and LGPL2... Reply
Now that ESP Print Pro is no longer being sold, what is the future for CUPS...1, 2, 5...10 years from now?
Are we still going to see CUPS 1.3?
Thanks, Angel