You Can't Make Money With Open Source?

[Bob Doyle]

The Third International OSCOM [1] (Open Source Content Management) 
Conference  at Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet and 
Society next week (May 28-30) will consider this subject - You Can't 
Make Money With Open Source?[2]

Panelists include:
Ed Boyajian VP, Red Hat
Ed Kelly, Ropes and Gray
Gregor Rothfuss (Wyona)
JT Smith CEO, Plain Black (WebGUI)

Professor Charles Nesson will moderate.

A separate panel on licensing issues[3] and their impact on pricing 
strategies will discuss these specific points.

Section 11 of the GNU General Public License (GPL)[4] says "BECAUSE THE 
PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE... The panel of legal experts will 
examine the significance of this line. Might it mean that GPL products 
cannot be sold?

Section 6 of the Open Source Definition[5] says "No Discrimination 
Against Fields of Endeavor," usually interpreted to mean any price 
charged must be the same for all customers. This apparently does not 
prevent MySQL from being free for non-profits and personal use, and have 
a fee for commercial use.

The panel will also examine "dual licensing," under which MySQL can sell 
the same product under the GPL or under a special "non-GPL" license. The 
panel will explain how a product under a GPL can legally also be sold 
under a different license.

Panelists include:

Mike Olson, CEO, Sleepycat Software
Larry Rosen, Open Source Initiative
Aaron Swartz, Creative Commons
Liza Vertinsky, Wolf, Greenfield, and Sacks

We solicit comments from the license-discuss list.
 
Conference registration[6] info.

[1] http://www.oscom.org/Conferences/Cambridge
[2] http://oscom.org/Conferences/Cambridge/Proposals/Business_Panel.html
[3] http://oscom.org/Conferences/Cambridge/Proposals/Legal_Panel.html
[4] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
[5] http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
[6] http://oscom.org/Conferences/Cambridge/Registration.html

-- 
Bob Doyle
http://www.skyBuilders.com
77 Huron Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-876-5678 


--
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