Comments on: Is Cittio ripping off the OpenNMS community?

Can one steal from an open-source project? Of course.

[Sortova]

Wow, thanks for the support Matt. I want to point out that when I wrote that to you I didn't intend for it to get published - it was the end of a very long day and I was a bit frustrated (thanks for removing the more expletive laden parts). I want to stress that we don't have any proof that Cittio is violating the letter of the GPL and I did write to Jamie Lerner offering him the chance to explain. Some may ask why I didn't do that in the first place, but as a search on my blog will reveal we went through something like this in September of 2005 with Cittio and I was not sure we'd get complete answers without a more public take on the situation. Thanks again.

[jlerner01]

Hi Matt - allow me to set the record straight on this as I've done with Tarus.

1) CITTIO makes use of more than 35 open source components in its NMS offering.
2) We fully disclose information on the open source components we use on our website at: http://www.cittio.com/technology/open-source.html
3) Our contracts make it clear open source code is delivered with our offerings and customers have the right to gain access, copy, modify and redistribute this free software
4) When customers have asked for this code, we have provided it to them

We don't hide the fact we distribute GPL code with our offering - do a google search or follow the link above. The members of slashdot did this and it is clear we are not hiding this.

Has CITTIO contributed back as much as it should? We can do better. We will be posting our contributions to sourceforge. While we have kept a separation between GPL code and our code, as you state, we need to contribute back .

We can do better - and we will.

Jamie Lerner - CITTIO

[sidboyce]

Looking forward to CITTIO keeping their word on contributing back, welcomed. Very encouraging reply from them.

[tomas.gavinho]

I have read over and over again, about how comercial offerings make money with the effort of the community. Ripping off, or not, it is a fact of life, parasites will allways be there, ask any biologist, they have known that for quite a while now.
It ain´t a perfect world, but if you ask a biologist, they can assure you that parasites have their pro´s. Even our own body would not be able to digest food as efficiently as it does were it not for all the bacteria that lives in our intestines.
I ain´t saying that parasites are allways good, they can grow untill killing the host, in this case, the OpenNMS community, but instead of whining, there should be a simbiosis. And amount of code contribution should not be the sole factor, documentation, marketing, core code functionality, among other factors should also be considered, and taken into account.

Tomas Gaviño

[enovikoff]

It looks like it's a moot point. Cittio is being dissolved.