Can an Open Source Project Be Acquired?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @03:11AM from the i-just-don't-get-this-one dept.

prostoalex writes "Can an open source project be acquired? ZDNet's Between The Lines says yes, one just did. Software startup JasperSoft acquired Sourceforge-based project JasperReports, which involved acquiring the copyrights and hiring the lead developer for the project." I guess the point he tries to make is that the new corporate overloads can essentially have a free and non-free version of the code, and more or less orphan the free version. The problem of course is that if the non-free version gets good, others will simply fork.

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Old Version? by Bananatree3 · 2005-04-26 03:15 · Score: -1, Redundant

If a company buys out an OSS, you can often still get the older, free version somewheres on the internet. It may not be as updated, but at least it is free.
1. Re:Old Version? by m50d · 2005-04-26 03:36 · Score: 0, Redundant
  
  If you're a developer, you can pick it up and work on it, and make it more of what you want than the commercial version is.
  
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  I am trolling