Posted by jessehouchins on August 7, 2009 at 6:24am
If someone uses Drupal to build a custom "software as a service" web app (an example mght be basecamp [http://basecamphq.com/]), is there any way to prevent a competitor from getting acces to the custom code or configuration used to create it and starting a competing service?
Comments
Depends
It depends what you do with the code. Any code you write for your company that never leaves your company's servers you can do whatever you want with, and are under no obligation to give it to anyone. However, any Drupal code or module code you do distribute to anyone else, either a large group or an individual, must be distributed under the terms of the GPL, which gives them the right to do whatever they want with it, including share it with others as long as they also do so under the GPL.
It's quite typical for a site to have some custom, site-specific code in it that doesn't get distributed elsewhere. Usually that code is very site-specific and wouldn't be useful for anyone else, anyway. However, many sites also generate new modules that have generic use, and it's usually a good idea to share those with the community on Drupal.org. In practice, you don't lose all that much. What you gain is, hopefully, a lot of other people using your module and contributing patches to it, so you get free labor out of the deal. Also recall that on any site, 98% or more of the code running on it you got for free from someone else under the GPL.
The alternative is that you build functionality that is so useful that someone else replicates it themselves and shares that; then the community still gets a module that does the same thing, but you have everyone else getting patches and contributions from others and all of the cost and support benefits that come from that, while you're left with a module that no one can maintain or bug fix but you and you still have to keep it working with your system somehow while the rest of the Drupal world moves on. Yes, that has in fact happened before.
If you're providing a hosted service a la basecamp, then your value proposition is not the code you have squirreled away on your server. It's the service you offer, your ability to create a workable framework and interface out of existing components, your ability to run a fast server, your ability to offer a competitive SLA, etc. The code is really incidental to what you're selling, which is a service and warm-and-happy-feeling for your clients.
Licensing
Crell,
I am also confused about licensing. Are saying that if I build something like basecamp using drupal I have to give the code away to whomever subscribes to my services?
No
If you build a site using Drupal, then people who simply visit the site are not entitled to a copy of the code. Simply posting here on g.d.o does not, for instance, mean that you are entitled to a copy of the code that runs this site. (It is all available on drupal.org as modules anyway, but that's not required by the GPL.)
However, if you do give a copy of the code to someone else, for whatever reason, then you must do so under the terms of the GPL which says that they may, in turn, modify the code and give it to someone else if they choose.
Thank you
Crell,
Thank you for your prompt response.
Please clarify this further for me.
Lets say I build a site for an ice cream company. I build a custom back end where the company updates its product list and sells ice cream through the site. I run this site on my own server.
What is the icecream company entitled to? Do I have to give the ice cream company all the code I wrote?
Can the ice cream take the code and sell it to ten other ice cream companies?
Depends
That would depend on the contract terms between you and your client, the ice cream company. Assuming you retain copyright to any custom code you write, then technically all you're selling is a service: use of your server and the software on it. As I said, though, that depends heavily on your contract and you'd want to speak to an attorney about the details yourself.
That said, given the availability of inventory management and e-commerce modules for Drupal that are available GPLed at no charge, such a business model is, I believe, rather doomed to failure. See earlier in this thread.
Thanks Again
Once again thank you for your prompt response. It is very much appreciated.
Hopefully I will talk to a lawyer some day. I right now I am just a noob developer. The whole ice cream company thing is just something I made up to use as an example. Of course I wouldn't build something as trivial as an inventory system and try to hold on to the rights.
So, If I build a site for the ice cream company and get a signed contract from them saying that site I am building is SAS will there there be a conflict with drupal's licensing? I can I say that I own the code and they can't have it if they want to host it on their own server?
Depends on your contract
98% of the code on any Drupal site you build will be copyrighted by someone else anyway. For the rest of it, it all depends on your contract with your clients.
As far as the GPL is concerned, the key is distribution. If you distribute the code to someone, then you must do so under the terms of the GPL. If you do not distribute the code to someone, then there are no additional obligations on you at all.
Hair-splitting about what constitutes distribution in the cases you describe is something best left to Free Software-savvy attorneys, whom you should consult if you have questions about specific cases like that. (Note: Not all copyright lawyers are Free Software-savvy. Some corporate lawyers are very anti-Free Software because they don't really understand its implications and just "shoot from the hip". Getting an attorney who understands but does not evangelize Free Software is important.)
really a great information
really a great information