“As early as March of this year, AOL… released code related to
its AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) client and protocols under the GPL
(GNU Public License). The company’s intent was to enable developers
to incorporate instant messaging features into Web pages, according
to officials.
“The GPL requires developers to share changes to source code. By
July, however, AOL pulled back the open-source TiK client and TOC
protocol, a subset of the main AIM protocol, Oscar. Around that
time, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) launched its own instant
messaging service, and AOL has stonewalled the open-source
community it once recruited as an ally.
“”We did not intend to allow anyone to take this code to run
instant messaging services over AOL’s network,” said Tricia
Primrose, an AOL spokeswoman in Dulles, Va.
“‘Cat’s out of the bag’ Open-source advocates and observers
say GPL-published code cannot simply be pulled back…”