Open Source Business Found Parasitic, and the ADCL

maa at liacc.up.pt maa at liacc.up.pt
Fri Mar 14 18:59:53 UTC 2003


Quoting James Harrell <jharrell at copernicusllc.com>:

> . . .

(I agree with everything.)

> Perhaps what these commercial entities are seeking is a way to publish
> an open source product that:
>  1) Protects the commercial investment in developing
> 	the intellectual property of the company
>  2) Provides significant source contributions to the world

And more.

> So what we're really looking for is a license called "Partially Open
> Source" or "Commercial Open Source" that will allow a company to
> protect small portions of a larger product. In other words (pick a
> number) X% of the product is truly Open Source, while Y% of the
> product is not. Maybe 90/10, who knows.

Actually we want 100% the software to be "quasi open source".

> But the key here, is that
> the commercial world does "want in" to the Open Source community,
> and we're looking for some form of viable comprimise that will let
> us work together and be embraced by (or in) the OSD.

Absolutely.

> Though I certainly understand this concept may be well outside of
> the charter of your organization. Thus, I would be happy to offer
> to begin to charter an organization for Commercial Open Source. I
> would prefer not to do so, particularly if OSI is interested in
> working towards incorporating and accepting such a concept into 
> the OSD. But if there is zero interest here in a Partial Open Source
> license, then I believe that ultimately the commercial world will
> form a consortium to address this concept.

Yes, that is what I'm trying to do with a couple of other developers (in a 
paralel but independent email discussion). When we have an official Internet 
presence I'll take the liberty of announcing it here. In the meanwhile 
everybody is *very* welcome to the join the gang. Just let me know.

Cheers,
--MAA


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