The open-source dilemma
(Credit: Matt Asay)At the Utah Open Source Conference yesterday I presented a dilemma. Briefly, the idea is that as open-source buyers grow comfortable with open source they will stop spending money on open source. This leads to tragedy of the commons-type problems and a difficulty in encouraging the creation of more open source.
I therefore asked the question, "Who will pay for open source in the future?" I (and the audience) suggested that the problem may resolve itself over time as enterprises come to recognize that their failure to replenish open-source communities with either cash or code may come to harm the code commons from which they derive increasing amounts of value. I also suggested that Eclipse, Mozilla, and other non-profit foundations provide an answer.
Lastly, I suggested that governments might get involved to shore up funding for open-source software development. As I noted, governments derive massive benefit from open source (and from IT spending, generally). Why not fund more of it?
Europe loves open source. Why not fund it?
(Credit: Matt Asay)I did not, however, have a clear idea as to the right way for this to be done. France, as noted in InfoWorld recently, suggests a way, as does TechDirt, which suggests that military spending could create the next Silicon Valley (so why not an open-source Silicon Valley, given how much the US military is buying into open source?).
France, the second largest market for open source outside the United States, does a range of things to promote open source, but its focus on open source for the rising generation is perhaps most important:
... Read MoreThe cheekiness/gall of Free/Iliad is almost shocking.
Free/Iliad is a billion-dollar French ISP that is taking sophistry to new depths. In response to a cease and desist letter that it either stop distributing with its arguments about why it's entitled to heavily modify software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) without contributing back its modifications, as Pierre writes.
What's of particular interest here is the way Mr. Niel [Free's founder] argues the GPL is irrelevant to this case. His claims is [sic] roughly this: my 3,000,000 GPLoaded-home routers are part of my network therefore the GPL doesn't apply since I don't distribute any software outside of my network.
Oh, really?
... Read More
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