Re: Fwd: Re: [Ossi] New Open Source License: Single Supplier

I'll add my $0.02, then. I promise that this is the last I say about any
of this in any of the lists.

This must be the best troll ever. Robert sent this to two lists I'm on,
in both cases CCing at least one other list (each). In all cases, we are
talking about development lists. In all cases, his "proposed license" is
incompatible with the license used at the projects, which basically
means that his claims that he intends to "contribute" code to the
project seems simply false (and in any case irrelevant).

I think Robert is practicing something I call Sending Public
All-received Messages. I think the best thing to do is not answer it
(which is what you are supposed to do with trolls), and in any case, not
on the list.

This license goes counter to the most fundemental part of free/open
source software - the software's copyright holder lack of control over
the software's user. As such, I think we can all simply call it "not
open source". If Robert wishes to prove us wrong, he is welcome to get
OSI to approve his precious license. Until he does, let's not give him
incentives for keeping disrupting the very important activity that is
this mailing list.

Uwe C. Schroeder wrote:

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>What is the idea behind handing source to anybody where the source may not be
>used in any way ? The only benefit I can see would be under a special
>agreement to the customer in case the "single supplier" goes out of business.
>
>
No. Robert is trying to get people to fix his software's bugs and
improve it, but still charge money for the software and the support. An
admireable notion, no doubt, but one that even Microsoft did not fully
manage to make take off.

>Also - if it's not acceptable for a developer to work on a software product
>that is open source, then don't. But please also tell those developers to not
>use any open source tools/languages/operating systems - since it might be
>unacceptable for the community to give anything to those developers.....
>
>
No, see, that's something you can't do. It may irritate you that people
who publicly attack the open source movement use open source tools, but
the very basic notion behind free software is that you let even these
people use the tools. You don't limit genetic research. You don't limit
governmental and military uses. You don't limit according to user's view
on open source software.

>Although nobody really requires you to contribute to any open source project -
>it is considered nice and fair to return some of the favors by contributing
>back (at least a little contribution, error testing, whatever - nobody asks
>you to do full time development on that project)
>
>
>
Robert doesn't mind the "back" part. Just the "contributing" part. He
can't gasp the idea that he is giving up exclusive control over the code
he wrote.

>You could still open source part of the project and keep the rest closed. For
>example reportlab (reportlab.com) used this scheme quite successfully: The
>open sourced the pdf generating library, but didn't open the XML description
>language and parser which uses the library. Doing so promotes their product -
>everyone can play with the library, but if you need it in large scale you
>most likely go back to reportlab and buy the addon's and services.
>
>
Don't use the term "open source" with him. The man is certain that his
license meets all of the OSI definitions. Like I said before, the best
thing to do is to let him prove that by asking him to get his license
OSI approved.

>My $0.02
>
>UC
>
>
In any case, I have seen him post his SPAM to this list, the freebsd
list and the wine list. I find the notion that one person can make
significant contribution to such diverse three projects in such a short
period of time (that was his first post on both the postgresql and the
wine lists) a little suspect. Since the license he is offering to make
his contributions under is compatible with neither the BSD license
(freebsd and postgresql) and the LGPL (wine), and since the wine license
is also incompatible to his license, I think we can safetly disregard
his offer for code help with these projects under these terms.

Shachar

--
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Systems Consulting
http://www.lingnu.com/