NewsApple 'Borrows' Open Source Code for Safari Reader Application

Apple ‘Borrows’ Open Source Code for Safari Reader Application

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Apple hasn’t broken any laws, or violated anybody’s copyright, but when the company released Safari 5 yesterday, it includes Safari Reader. Safari Reader is built using open source code from the Readability project.

The Register’s Cade Metz reports that while Apple does give Arc90 Labs, the creators of Readability, a nod in Safari’s Help -> Acknowledgments, Apple appears to be suggesting that they built the application.

TechCruch, Metz said, are still under the illusion that Apple built Reader on its own.

But since Readability is Apache 2 licensed, source code is not required to be sent back to the open source community.

What Safari Reader does is that it strips all of the ads, interactive content, and everything else from a Web page, leaving just the story you’re reading.

“Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles,” Apple said. “So you get the whole story and nothing but the story.”

Online publishers are going to love this one.

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