The ExtJS debacle: What should its licensing strategy be?
Posted by: admin in Business and PoliticsExtJS is a cool JavaScript framework for writing web applications. It is, quite possibly, the best of its kind. My own engineers were salivating at the chance to use it.
Unfortunately, ExtJS is of many minds when it comes to licensing its product. It pretended that the software was LGPL, but only insofar as that meant many people using it…and many people paying to use it. (Hint to the ExtJS business team: LGPL and Apache licenses are impotent to compel payment.)
The company took the hint, re-releasing the code under GPLv3, causing consternation in some quarters. Why the concern? Well, because it meant that freeriders would now clearly have to pay, or distribute their own software under the GPL. Many don’t like having to pay for value, particularly if it’s GPL’d.
All of which has caused some to fork the ExtJS project. Given the dubious open-source provenance of ExtJS, this is not as simple (or advisable) as it might appear. If ExtJS were never truly LGPL, as the messed-up licensing would seem to advocate, then forking a proprietary product is called…copyright infringement.
It didn’t have to be this way.
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