You Can't Make Money With Open Source?

[maa at liacc.up.pt]

It's nice to see a sort of independent confirmation that the 'commercial open 
source' issues I raise here from time to time are real :-)

For now I'll just try to promote mutual awareness of the OSCOM people and the 
SDC effort, by cc-ing this post to the SDC list. SDC stands for Software 
Developers Cooperative. The SDC is an as yet informal group trying to 
reconcile intellectual property with open source. Our current web presence is 
at yahoogroups.com/group/softdevelcoop, where a license is being draft that 
*assumedly* goes against clause 6. This is historically tied to my draft 
article OPEN SOURCE BUSINESS FOUND PARASITIC which was discussed here at 
length (thanks guys).

Below I reproduce the entire post from Bob Doyle for the benefit of the SDC 
list. Also, as all mentioned issues have been discussed here before in the 
OPEN SOURCE BUSINESS FOUND PARASITIC thread and in the SDC forum, I will not 
go over them again here--as I said, currently I just want to make OSCOM and 
SDC aware of each other. Of course I'll give pointers on specific issues if so 
requested.

--MAA

====================================================================
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 15:05:33 -0400
From: Bob Doyle <bobdoyle at skybuilders.com>
To: license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: You Can't Make Money With Open Source?
--------------------------------------------------------------------

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 


--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
===================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through NIAAD: http://www.niaad.liacc.up.pt/


--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3