Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

John Terpstra on Challenges to Free Software

Posted by michael on from the you-want-to-fight dept.

Telex4 writes "Anyone who has read John Terpstra's article on Groklaw about Intellectual Property (IP) rights will be interested to read an interview I did recently with John at KDE's World Summit. We talked about what IP means to the free software community, how we can drive GNU/Linux adoption, and how he thinks the IT market will change in coming years. He gives us a lot to think about in terms of what more we should be doing."

6 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. trending toward open by dirvish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If IP law continues the way it is Free Software will be the only alternative for consumers. Businesses are treating their customers like criminals and these customers will only take it for so long. People are becoming aware of the draconian approach to IP and they are beginning to reject it in favor of more open solutions.

    --
    FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
    1. Re:trending toward open by over_exposed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not nearly as optimistic as you. Granted, SOME people are becoming aware of the problem... Most of them just bend over and take it in the pooper because A) they don't know any better and B) even if they did, they don't think could do anything about it. Society is not as intelligent as we would all like to believe. Remember, 50% of people out there are dumber than average.

      --
      "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
  2. Re:Change by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's a difference between imposition and advocacy. People can make (and have made) the case for free software in places where they have influence. They don't have to cram these ideas down anyone's throats; gradual acceptance will come when the software lives up to the advocacy.

  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. Re:Warez by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful
    " Seriously, what percentage of the apps on your Windows machine did you pay for, inclusing the OS itself?"

    100%. But then I learned that taking things without permission is wrong when I was in preschool.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  5. John needs to rethink what will reshape the market by thpr · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "There will be a fundamental reshaping of the market, which can only come from the bottom up, i.e. from the free software community and from small companies".

    "The two most important strategies we must adopt are to encourage and adhere to open standards, which undermine big IP oriented business' ability to monopolise and dominate the marketplace.

    I think John misses the point over what makes some companies dominate and why open source won't help small business.

    John doesn't have the same defintion of domination and the definition of "fundamental reshaping" as everyone else. Open source software has been VERY successful in the building blocks of software. GNU/Linux as an operating system; Eclipse as an IDE, MySQL as a database.

    However, there are niche applications where the open source investment will be slow, painful, and probably not pan out. If you think open source will unseat AutoCAD, don't hold your breath. It may happen, but it won't be this decade. And Adobe Photoshop STILL dominates in image processing, even though GIMP is rather useful.

    Domination (especially due to IP) is also a relative term. Microsoft can be seen to dominate the OS and "office" market today; those are prime targets of OS software. But IBM has a huge IP portfolio - is one of the large companies 'appear[ing] to support open source' and yet has a lot less to lose (on a relative scale to Microsoft). Even if IBM's software group (DB2, Lotus Notes, et al.) took it in the teeth from open source, is that going to have a (negative) impact on IBM Global Services? Will it not be the same dominating behemoth it is today?

    The "fundamental reshaping" of the market will come when technology becomes pervasive, reliable, and easy enough to use that the Fortune 500 doesn't NEED to call IBM Global Services any more. Until then, someone has to put everything together, and open source reducing the procurement cost isn't going to change that. Solve the reliability and ease of use problems for small business and you WILL win in the marketplace - whether or not you're open source.