Open Source / Free Software dominates the Web infrastructure. It is used at the core many Total Information Outsourcing (TIO) services. Google is for example of big user of MySQL, python, Java, Apache and Zope.

However, most TIO services are not themselves open source and provide little freedom to end users. For example, the source code of GMail - Google's Webmail - is not available. Some Open Source / Free Software authors started to worry a decade ago that online applications created a breach in the principles of copyleft. Hosted applications based on open source could include improvements which were kept secret by the online application provider. The Affero License [REF] was created as to solve this issue and is now included as an option in the GNU licenses. With the Affero option, any changes to the source code of an Open Source / Free software must be made available as soon as the sofware is provided as an online service.

The Affero approach, which is sufficient for authors of Open Source / Free Software to prevent unfair competition from online application providers, is not a panacea though. First, it can be considered as excessive and harmful to business, for example whenever configuration scripts and derivative works must remain secret to protect trade secret. Second, it does not prevent from developing a proprietary layer over Open Source / Free Software core components and thus create a lock-in for end-users.

From a user perspective, the main issue to address is how to benefit in the realm of TIO from the same level of control and freedom as what Open Source / Free Software provides in the realm of common off the shelf software (COTS). The definition of the 5 levels of freedom in TIO [REF], a.k.a. TIO Libre, provides an SLA based solution. It is based on the idea that TIO users are in control if and only if there are no lock-ins to prevent them from migrating to a self-operated TIO infrastructure.

TIO Libre, just like Open Source / Free Software, does not say anything though about contents and know how. Services based on content aggregation, for the purpose of searching information or prediction, or based on know which requires training and expertise, may be fully compliant with the 5 levels of freedom in TIO yet take much time and effort to reproduce by a third party. Just like Open Source / Free Software, it creates enough room for differenciation and added value.

There is no fate in vendor lock-in to finance innovation in the TIO realm.

References