RedHat Starts "Open Source Now" Fund

celston23 writes "According to this article (near bottom), RedHat is intending to use their Open Source Now Fund to support open-source (GPL) developers who are sued for copyright infringement. Might be used during the SCO legal battle."

Comments

Unfortunate but needed

[Kethinov]

Open Source's greatest feature and worst flaw is that it's free and open. Because there's next to no profit in it, software authors have next to no protection from getting sued. So in order to protect things like Linux from SCO, there needs to be some kind of a fund like this. Again, unfortunate but true.

Re:That's nice of them...

[mr_z_beeblebrox]

who keeps the interest earned from the fund?

Does it matter? Red Hat is sticking their neck out into a multi billion dollar lawsuit in the interest of their primary product (which is also a community of developers primary product) that substantial risk is very worthwhile additionally, they are using their clout and name recognition to attract donors. The use of corporate resources, image etc... is a service that even CHARITABLE organizations compensate.

Re:EFF?

[Gherald]

Why is this necessary when we have the EFF?

The EFF is much more broad.

RedHat is only concerned with Linux and the GPL, plus they want the publicity.

Is Linux still free?

[Sean80]

Maybe I'll be flamebaited again for this.

You know, back in the day, when I first came to Slashdot, Open Source was all about the free, wild and woolly creation of software, about freedom from The Man, and doing stuff because it was a Nerd Mountain and by goddamn we were going to climb it. I'm never sure if I should be happy or sad that companies such as Red Hat and Oracle are essentially hijacking the popularity of Linux. At the end of the day, is it about being on everybody's desktop or server, or is it about having written good code without a boss? Coding just for the sake of coding, fixing problems without having to beg marketing to let you do it.

What do I say this? Well, I just can't bring myself to believe that Red Hat has the interests of the greater community at heart here. In my view, they are simply trying to protect their revenue stream. Without companies turning to Open Source, they simply don't have any customers.

Maybe that's obvious, but I think amongst all of the support that this fund will have, it's at least good to have it said.

Re:Is Linux still free?

[GoofyBoy]

Interesting point. I think it comes down to that different people will use Linux for their own purposes. You (I am assuming) want it to make really neat code that does something worthwhile/meaningful. I want it as a good platform to run Java code or a server.

Once it gets into the hands of companies, they are going to have this legal/political/money crap Not that there is anything wrong with that, its just this is how they work.

Just as long as Linux is freely available, open and people can get their hands deep into its ugly belly, just ignore all of this crap. Just as you would ignore how anyone else uses Linux for writing Java code or running servers.

Re:That's nice of them...

[Chicane-UK]

My god.. why the hell is it that no matter what kind of offer people make into the Open Source community, there has to be some nit-picking whiner trying to crap on the parade, or pick holes in it.

Put a sock in it.

How can anyone say this is NOT a good thing?

[bailout911]

Redhat doesn't HAVE to do this, and I'll wager it doesn't put "money in their pocket" as so many Redhat bashers seem to be obessed with mentioning. It's good PR, yes, but it's also good for the community.

Redhat makes IMHO the BEST out-of-the box distro. You want something that just works (tm)? 95% of the time, you're talking about Redhat. Is it perfect? No, not by a long shot, but it amazes me the sheer number of people who attack Redhat just because they are the market leader. Remember kids, if it's popular, it must be crap!