Open Source Business Found Parasitic, and the ADCL

[Rick Moen]

Quoting James Harrell (jharrell at copernicusllc.com):

> I don't think I'm missing the point- I think that the point (or
> perhaps better said, some folks who respond on this list regularly)
> has little tolerance for compromise; whereas from my perspective, I'm
> looking at making major changes to (one part of) my business model.

Well, I honestly doubt it's on the agenda of the OSI Board, let alone of
this mailing list, to find ways to alter the OSD so you can be more
confident profits from OSI-cerified software.  However, I could be
wrong; I suppose you could e-mail the Board, and ask.  (We'll get to
your other notion of "compromise" near the end.)

In my experience, the desirability of compromise is situation-dependent.
E.g., if a mugger wants to kill me, but I'd rather live, ending up
half-dead doesn't seem a very equitable outcome.  ;->

It's my strong suspicion that the Board has no desire to alter the OSD
through "compromises" to accomodate further restrictions aimed at
helping copyright holders make profits from proprietary software -- nor
to create a favoured category of the latter -- as not being in the
interests of the open source community (even though that's radically
less unpleasant than being left half-dead).  However, you might be best
advised to ask them.  

> Would the OSI consider discussing a "Commercial Open Source License"
> for "OSI Endorsement" but *not* OSI approval?

The above seems tantamount to saying "Please provide a way to pass off
proprietary software as open source, with OSI imprimatur".  But please
note that the community defines the term "open source" as OSD-compliant,
and tends to be fairly insistent on that point. 

(The OSI's legal mechanism for this is its service mark.  The term "open
source" as applied to software proved to have enforceability problems
under trademark law, but people who've tried to use it for clearly
proprietary software have encountered serious PR problems.)

-- 
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God turn their hearts; and if he doesn't turn their hearts, may
he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.
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