thearchivist.funBlender becomes an open-source creative tool
After a fundraising campaign, Blender's source code became available under the GNU GPL on October 13, 2002.
Context and provenance
Blender's official twenty-fifth-birthday history identifies October 13, 2002 as the date its source code became available under the GNU GPL following a fundraising campaign. This was a change in the project's ownership and development conditions, not the first appearance of Blender itself. Its earlier history matters because open-source status was an outcome of a transition. For a creative tool, that transition changes what a community can preserve and improve: the application is accompanied by source code that can be studied and developed under its license. The milestone connects digital art history with the practical arrangements that determine whether artists' tools can outlive a particular commercial chapter.
Why it matters
Blender illustrates that creative infrastructure has its own preservation history. Access to source code changes the possibilities for maintaining a tool, learning from it, and continuing its development.