Kirsten Quits: Citing GPL Enforcement Stress, Leading Open Source Developer Quits SL Viewer Production (Updated)

This is tragic and disturbing news, moreso because it probably could have been prevented.  In recent hours, acclaimed open source developer KirstenLee Cinquetti, the programmer behind  creator of the revolutionary Shadowdraft client hack (pictured at left) and the S16 viewer that's already garnered an army of fans, has entirely removed her blog from the Net. (Broken link here.) 

The given reason? 

"It became too much hassle," she told me by e-mail, referring to the GPL license and its self-appointed supporters.  "I'm getting requests for sources I don't have anymore and it's not much fun being quoted various sections and subsections, so for a quiet life, I don't feel inclined to bother anymore." 

That said, she continues, "I exercised my freedom to do what the heck I please with my computer and deleted everything and won't be doing any more viewers. If that upsets them, they can take me to court. But I'm sick and tired of the whole scene."

What happens to those who're already using the S16?

"I'm sure there will be many helpful individuals who will host the files," she says, "I think it's best if I keep my viewers just to my personal use it incurs less penalties."  She also adds, "Give my apologies to all."

She will continue make new versions of the Second Life viewer, however.  "I think I will go back to what I used to do," she says, smiling, "and just make them for me and my partner."

Update, 4:00pm:  Changed description of Ms. Cinquetti's work on the Shadowdraft client.  Also, here's more info on her problems with GPL requests:

"It became too much hassle apparently under section 3c or 3b of some part of GPL [that] I had to keep all sources for 3 years, and some other requests I could not accomodate correctly, so the whole thing became such a huge problem."

Comments

[Balp Allen]

Sad Sad News...... Shame on you fanatics....

[Ran Garrigus]

I agree, this is very disturbing. From all I heard, KirstenLee made a good faith effort to comply with GPL enforcement requirements, and the intolerance and impatience of some has truly left all residents a bit poorer.

Would it have truly hurt anyone to back off and give this talented developer more breathing space to get all the ducks in a row, instead of hammering away like a pack of rabid Stallmanites?

[The KIng]

Well the GPL "Union Thugs" once again put a entrepreneur out of business, Im sorry to see this happen. This showed the promise of that Sl could have been and her viiewers are so much more stable too. Damn. Bad news all around.

-The King

[Ann Otoole]

Thus the problem in general with the open source nutcases. Better to never give the trolls any free code to eat. What would they do then? Have to actually learn how to engineer software? Fat chance.

[Stephen Zenith]

I'm sorry, but other people made the vast bulk of the code she was using, and attached certain conditions to the redistribution of binaries made from that code. If she wasn't prepared to accept those conditions, then fine - just don't use the code. Nobody forced her, she accepted those conditions over her own free-will.

If you use the code and don't comply with the conditions attached, you're in breach. I don't imagine Microsoft or Apple would be any more understanding if you redistributed their products in breach of the relevant copyright.

As for putting an entrepreneur out of business, being an entrepreneur (not that she is) does not give you carte blanche to ride roughshod over the work given out freely by others.

[Stephen Zenith]

Oh, and how is she "the creator of the revolutionary Shadowdraft client"? The Shadowdraft code was written by Linden Lab, and is available (under the GPL) in their SVN repository. It's now in a branch called maint-render, but it's the same codebase.

[Todd Borst]

Ug, this is such an unfortunate end for such an awesome viewer. My netbook will miss it dearly. For what its worth, thanks Kirsten.

[GoSpeed Racer]

With rare exception those who wave the rulebooks never produce a product or service others can use.

Instead of hounding her why didn't anyone offer to help her comply? What did anyone have to gain from her quitting and withdrawing her work. Last I looked the viewer has been and will always be free.

To hell with you slimey creeps.

[Mocksoup]

And this is why a BSD license is so much better. I adore your client, Kirsten. Sorry the fanatics drove you out. :(

[Fricker Fraker]

This is truly a loss to the collective of SL residents. I have been following Kristen’s progress through many versions of her viewer and I am sorry that she has been forced to take these measures. Her viewer is an inspiration to many of us in SL. I personally saw this viewer as an expression of her technical creativity and not just some bits and bytes that the self-appointed GPL police kept hounding to get their hands on.

To Kristen – I hope you continue with your mastery of technical creativity in your Shadowdraft Viewer… even if it’s now going to be a personal endeavor for you alone. I will always be a supporter.

[Nexii Malthus]

Such a shame, was a big shock when I noticed the blog was down at first. I hope that she may return eventually with enough support from the community unlike before from the stress caused by these opensource fanatics.

[Balp Allen]

@GoSpeed, Some of us did offer to help, Or as She said on her blog, "I must Say some coders, Anders,Hyang were very gracious and patient with me."

This shows again the only way to change something is being nice. Everything else is will fail...

/Balp

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I'm not up on the arcane minutia of the GPL license, but this is silly. The viewers were freely available, and I believe the source code was posted. What's the problem, exactly?

Sounds to me like this is someone who got hammered by griefers and crumpled like a wet napkin.

It's a pity, because she's quite good. But it's her choice.

[Bobby Ritt]

Well, this news makes me feel very sad, Kirsten was developping some of the most exciting things around SL and Opensim, and will be very missed I sure. But it's her life, and I understand her call. I just want to thank her for all the great work, and which her all the best for the future.

[Bobby Ritt]

Well, this news makes me feel very sad, Kirsten was developping some of the most exciting things around SL and Opensim, and will be very missed I sure. But it's her life, and I understand her call. I just want to thank her for all the great work, and which her all the best for the future.

[Maximilian Morpork]

I am not sure I really understood.... she is not distributing it anymore, but somehow we are going to "unofficially" get it somewhere else?

I really hope so, because it has really changed my SLife

there are NO other viewers that stable, fast and just perfect as S16

[Emeline Magic]

I discovered Kristen browser recently and I love it. It's bad news that she stop everthing but if she had no pleasure anymore I can understand.

[Nexii Malthus]

I am hosting the SD5-R1 viewer if anyone wants to download it.
http://www.nexii.info/Kirstens%20SD5-R1.exe

[Dave]

It's a weak excuse, it's easy to be GPL compliant. Just host the source for download, in windows, you can do it in about 3 mouse clicks.

[Dave]

Also you've got it wrong hamlet, the shadow draft viewer is basically built from Linden shadow draft branch.

But then it seems the facts don't really matter to you.

[nimil]

thanks for ruining a great client jerks...

i know i bitched about the time thing but that viewer was perfect, and worked so well on my crappy laptop.. and having the media browser for textures was something i've wanted since i started aquiring textures! i hope someone can fill the void she's created here...

[Mo Hax]

BSD. BSD. BSD.

[Chaddington Boomhauer]

This really sucks but it seems so silly at the same time, Whether you use All Rights Reserved, BSD or GPL shouldn't you read the terms before you start distributing it? Maybe even before working on it at all???

[Barney Boomslang]

Kids, get a grip on reality. You might not like the license options of the GPL, but it's a fact that the client is under that license and so you have to abide to the terms. Citing "stress" over the license because people actually expect you to keep to it is rather funny. Especially if all is required is to provide the sources you compiled to your binary, packed up nicely alongside your binary download. Really a no-brainer (the kdu stuff and fmod stuff is a different thing - but those problems don't derive from GPL but form commercial licenses - but I don't see you much complaining about _those_ license terms and the owners of said projects insisting on people adhering to that license).

And to Hamlet: in what way was that a "leading open source developer"? Sorry, but if you look at who cranks out patch after patch and who integraters patch after patch and runs the most visible patched client effort, I'd say Henri and gang (Boyd for Windows and Hyang for Mac) deserve much more acknowledgement of "leading".

Kirsten did a hacked client for her own use - all well with that. It's a nifty thing, too, agreed. Some things in it seem to work more smoothly than in most official releases - not much different from what Nicholaz did or what Henri is doing now, though.

Could we really stop hyping one or the other - both the "oh, how great" stuff and the "oh, how much this sucks" stuff? It's silly.

[Torrid Luna]

SL should hire KirstenLee, and/or simplify their patch policies and frequency(!). There are so many good improvements waiting out there, Kirstens almost Lite viewer, the Sound improvement by ditching fmod, the fully open source Meerkat viewer, and almost nothing of that will be available for the Common Resident soon.
While I think that one should obey the rules when messing around with GPL'ed (or any other sort of licensed) code, I can understand that it's not easy for individuals to keep up the needed infrastructure.
It will be a huge loss of good energy if KirstenLee really won't release her work anymore.