[Developers] Question about the backend software and data

[Johann Petrak]

I could not find an explicit explanation or statement anywhere about
the software and data in the backend component of Freebase/Metaweb.

Is it correct that the software serving the data, implementing the
query API etc. is closed and proprietary? Is the data only accessible
via the query API? Are these components owned and secret to the
Metaweb company?

This would be important differences to e.g. Wikipedia where not
only the access to the data via the web interface is free, but
also all backend software is opensource and free, and the
backend data is fully available as a dump (except for data related to
user accounts, of course).
I think it would be interesting to include this in the FAQ
that talks about differences to Wikipedia and others.

Could somebody please clarify this?