Apple Public Source License updated and approved

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 7 Aug 2003 at 11:36

Apple has announced a new version of its Apple Public Source License (APSL), conforming to the Free Software Foundation's definition of Free Software Licenses.

The APSL sets out the terms by which developers can download source code from Apple, modify it and distribute the results. Projects for which source code is available include OS X's Darwin core, QuickTime Streaming Server and Rendezvous.

Apple believes that, 'the open source model is the most effective form of development for certain types of software. By pooling expertise with the open source development community, we expect to improve the quality, performance and feature set of our software.'

To this end it has made 'numerous' changes to the APSL, including: source distribution is only required for 'External Deployment', allowing individuals and corporations to do private internal deployments; an option to distribute source only to those receiving binaries, rather than always having to distribute to the general public; and simpler, clearer, and more symmetric licensing terms. Developers can also use their generic Apple ID, rather than a separate developer's ID, to access source code.

Some changes have yet to be fully implemented. Apple ID authentication is currently not supported with WebDAV at this time, so DAV access has been temporarily disabled; some earlier versions of Darwin may not be available though Apple hopes to fix this as soon as possible. It is also working to provide a means to easily view changes between versions.

Further details of the new licensing process are available at developer.apple.com/darwin/.