The New York Times > Technology > In Competitive Move, I.B.M. Puts Code in Public Domain

The New York Times > Technology > In Competitive Move, I.B.M. Puts Code in Public Domain ".B.M. is handing over the code for Cloudscape, a database written in Java, to an open source group, the Apache Software Foundation. Within the open source group, the database will be called Derby.
The Apache organization is best known as the steward of the Apache Web server, which is the software that powers most Web sites, though it also oversees many open-source Java projects. In the open source model of development, the code is distributed free and programmers are free to modify and debug it, within certain rules.
Apache will hold the licensing and intellectual property rights to the Cloudscape code. By transferring its technology into the public domain, Janet Perna, general manager for data management software at I.B.M., said, "We hope to spur the further development of the Java community.
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The $85 million value that I.B.M. placed on its code contribution is the price Informix, a database company, paid in 1999 for Cloudscape, a small start-up company. In 2001, I.B.M. acquired Informix for $1 billion."