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The keys to the kingdom: Biggu Source Code

November 14, 2006

biginjapancartoonEarlier today I announced that Big in Japan would release the source code to several web applications built and hosted by the company. TechCrunch even picked up on the idea. The source code is being released using the GPL.* Each tool was written using Ruby on Rails. If you review the code you will note that each tool was built at a different time. See if you can guess which tool was first and which was last. As promised:

The repositories can be accessed either by browser or via the svn client. The svn username is “anonymous” and the password is blank.

* To be clear, it is our intent that anyone who modifies the code MUST release those modifications publicly. If you modify the code for use as your own hosted service we require that you release the modified code. Get it? There is some confusion about this point in the open source community. The license explains that you are required to do so if you distribute or publish the code and some argue that a hosted application does not constitute “distribution” or “publishing” of the code and as such you are not required to release the modifications. We understand the confusion, but want to be very clear, for the purposes of our license hosting the source code for other’s use constitutes distribution or publication of the binary code. This is detailed in the source code files as well. Enjoy!

Written by Alexander Muse · Filed Under Blog 

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