Submitted by Michael Tiemann on Tue, 2007-06-26 10:37
I started to respond to David Richards (the CEO of CentricCRM) comment to the thread I started last week, but that thread has generated a number of sub-threads which I think are better addressed separately. (You can be the judge as to whether this thread separation is a good idea or not.) Thus, I gave a partial response there, and here's really my full response.
David,
First, let me thank you for stepping forward into this discussion.
Second, let me applaud you for choosing the OSL as a license for your Team Elements software. I sincerely hope that you find that to be a successful choice, and I sincerely believe that over time, you will see the dividends that the open source model affords (as compared to a proprietary model).
Third, I appreciate your appeal to the history of the Bill of Rights in your argument. I like a well-constructed (or at least well-referenced) argument! And the OSI will be ramping up discussions (which will be kicked off at OSCON) on how we can better be the self-governing, representative body we always intended to be. If you come to OSCON, I'd welcome your participation in that meeting.
But finally, let me say that I do not accept the proposition that "because we cannot fit our business to the model stipulated by the open source definition, we will arbitrarily ignore the stipulations of that definition while retaining the power and promise of the conepts it embodies." It would be like a member of the executive branch of the US government declaring themselves to be free from oversight, free from accountability, or free even from the law, because they believe such oversight, such accountability, and such laws are an inconvenience to their policy and in conflict with their personal interpretation of their sworn sovereign duties. At the risk of not giving a fuller elaboration here, I will instead create a new blog posting as to why I think that all of the conditions of the OSD, not just a convenient few, are essential to the notion of what is open source, and perhaps we can carry on our discussion of this more specific topic there.
I believe that the principles embodied by the open source definition are sound and necessary to afford the benefits I myself have witnessed for hundreds of projects, hundreds of companies, and many thousands of customers, especially the benefit of unexpected benefits. If you believe that somebody else can do the job better than you can (as I did when it came to writing compilers), then reciprocal licenses like the GPL and the OSL ensure that at the very least you are not deprived of the benefits that downstream developers can provide. At that point, you can compare three scenarios:
- The product is all I can make it, with no external help, other than Other People's Money
- The product is what I, and others, can make it, each serving their self-interest
- The product is what I can make it, with the help of others who agree to place my interests ahead of their own
Comments
Submitted by Michael Tiemann on Tue, 2007-06-26 10:58 Permalink
Link to Dana Blankenhorn's "Little Red Hen"
Submitted by OSI on Tue, 2007-06-26 17:15 Permalink
Thanks for starting this discussion...
Submitted by Michael Tiemann on Tue, 2007-06-26 18:43 Permalink
Good dialog
Submitted by OSI on Wed, 2007-06-27 06:52 Permalink
Back to work