"By the end of 1990, the first web page was served on the open internet, and in 1991, people outside of CERN were invited to join this new web community.
As the web began to grow, Tim realised that its true potential would only be unleashed if anyone, anywhere could use it without paying a fee or having to ask for permission.
He explains: “Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”
So, Tim and others advocated to ensure that CERN would agree to make the underlying code available on a royalty-free basis, forever."
1. We're well past websites into web apps. You are not entitled to the source code of these apps, like Gmail/GSuite - that are client heavy web apps, with logic, state, custom-IPs & algorithms.
2. The underlying code of the web's infrastructure is available on a royalty-free basis, and shall remain as such!! There's immense benefit in maintaining this equal-opportunity status-quo.
"Web apps" are an oxymoron.
Transforming the browser into an OS inside the OS is just bad practice (but the reason that happened was because Microsoft sucked, and Google wanted more control over computing - see also Valve with Steam patching games).
"By the end of 1990, the first web page was served on the open internet, and in 1991, people outside of CERN were invited to join this new web community.
As the web began to grow, Tim realised that its true potential would only be unleashed if anyone, anywhere could use it without paying a fee or having to ask for permission.
He explains: “Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”
So, Tim and others advocated to ensure that CERN would agree to make the underlying code available on a royalty-free basis, forever."
Can you see how rude it is to not do the same ?