GPL and Tessitura Licence

Our website is powered by Drupal and we've raised this exact issue with the Tessitura Network Web Team. I also discussed it briefly in the Web Developers Forum at TLCC2011. We've struggled with the ethics of Open Source sharing vs. the Tessitura NDA as well.

Our web firm, Gorton Studios, who developed customized Drupal modules for our Tessitura web integration, has a solution that I proposed in Orlando. Here's the gist of it:

- Any custom code built from Drupal core needs to be GPL as well. Meaning, if we decide we want to share our custom Tessitura Drupal modules, it needs to be done through the Drupal website.
- Tessitura says we can share code among other licensees, but it must be done in a private environment.
- Of course, these two points conflict, so we haven't been able to share our code.

What Gorton Studios has proposed:

- Rebuild the custom Drupal modules, pulling all of the Tessitura-specific information (API calls, etc.) out of the code.
- Create a "Key Module" (or something like that) which houses all of the Tessitura-specific stuff.
- This Key Module would not be part of the code shared publically in the Drupal community, and instead somthing that would need to be obtained through the Tessitura Network.
- Apparently this is cool with GPL. Our firm cited Amazon as a company that has something similar with their code/API.

I'm excited to get this discussion going within the Tessitura Community. With the growing use of Open Source software solutions to power websites, I think the timing is right.

Feel free to contact me directly with questions, ideas, etc.
Eric

Eric Mueller
Webmaster & Social Media Guy
Science Museum of Minnesota

Email: emueller@smm.org
Phone: (651) 221-9455
Twitter: @sciencemuseummn

Hi Simon and Eric-

Good question.  Eric, thanks for weighing in...I know you have lots of experience with this topic!  

From the Tessitura Network perspective, we never want to stand in the way of you picking whichever CMS or software development tools you prefer but we do have to protect Tessitura Network intellectual property.  I think the crux of the issue is this.  Sharing is absolutely ok (encouraged!) within the Tessitura Member community.  That means any organization covered under our license agreement/NDA terms.  But releasing code containing Tessitura-specific references into the public domain is not ok.   That includes any contractors you work with as well.  So what about the GPL?

This is actually in keeping with the language from gnu.org guidance that says "The GPL does not require you to release your modified version, or any part of it. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization."  

This approach overall allows you to use the technology that you'd like and hope this will be satisfactory for all.  The ideal place to share code is on this website and if you'd like a dedicated place set up to do that, let me know.  

Hope this helps clarify the Network's position on open sourcing software-- any questions at all, please contact me.

Kristin

The only license to keep an eye out for, based on Kristin's comments, is the Affero GPL.

Unlike the normal GPL, the Affero variant requires that any software available over a network make the source available as well.  So with the normal GPL, you only need to provide source if you're providing the website as an application for someone else to install.  With the Affero, the intention is that if I can get to your website, I'm entitled to the source code for that same website.

I'm not aware of any CMS' that are using the Affero at this time, but it's worth keeping an eye out for.

Eric

Thanks for all the information!

Its good to know that we are free to use Open Source software, which as well as avoiding vendor lock in, also helps alot with the cost!!!

I think what Eric proposes would be an excellent idea, if we were able to pack up functionality into a single module that could be used by the entire Tessitura community.  The major difficult I think in this, would be keeping it as flexiable as the main Tessitura system, so that people can do almost whatever they want.

And we do have a place on this site for sharing code and such; the Web Developers group was created for this very reason!