[ILUG] open source article

[John P. Looney]

On Mon, Mar 13, 2000 at 08:59:16PM +0000, Kenn Humborg mentioned:
> I would really love if such a compromise were possible.  There have been plenty
> of times that I would have loved to fix a bug or add a feature to a commercial
> package.  Having the source would have allowed me to do this.  But this would
> also open up this companies 'innovations' to competitors, thus reducing the
> differentiators between products, commoditizing the market and bringing down
> prices (things I-the-user would _love_ to see!), which 99% of companies would
> be very unwilling to do.

 And, the thing is, that this happens in the world of litrature.

 You write a book. You release the source code, obviously. And, you make
money on the distribution costs. There are legal means to stop people
reproducing your work, called copyright.

 This is why there is a place for licenses like the Sun Community Source
License or whatever. It means "We are the copyright holders, and would
like to make money off this. But, we are giving you the source, so you can
change it. Change it, and give away changes & withhold them from us, or
try and make money from it, and we'll sue your ass.

 It's an excellent idea. I so wish Oracle would do this, or SpinChat.
good products, that are severely encumbered by the fact that I can't
change things about them.

Kate

-- 
"The fool must be beaten with a stick, for an intelligent person 
the merest hint is sufficient"                -- Zen Master Greg