Slashdot Mirror
Sun Says, "Compensate OSS Developers"
krelian writes "Talking at Netbeans Day, Rich Green, Sun executive vice president for software, expressed doubts about the current open source model in which developers create free intellectual property only to have others scoop it up and generate huge amounts of revenue. Green said, 'I think in the long term that this is a worrisome scenario [and] not sustainable. We are looking very closely at compensating people for the work that they do.'" Green didn't provide any details about how payments from Sun or others might work.
Maybe Sun could set an example by forking over a few bucks for the free software they "steal" from all over.
"in which developers create free intellectual property only to have others scoop it up and generate huge amounts of revenue."
It seems SUN wants to 'protect' OSS devls against themselves. I, however, am quite confident that, when OSS developers put their program/code under the GPL (or something) they are aware that others might scoop it up. It's *meant* to be scooped up, after all.
No one (notorious fools exepted) is going to open source a product with the expecation they can prevent others from scooping it up - and when under the GPL, they won't expect to prohibit others from making a buck of it neither. The rules are inherent to the Open Sourcing, after all. If you want to keep it all for yourself, then you choose a proprietary licence.
The notion of Sun that the system will fail because others might use the code is mindboggling stupid and contradicted by all grand OSS projects. If people weren't free to 'scoop up' the code, there wouldn't be an OSS in the first place.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Hey people, you see those things on the end of your legs? They're called feet! Try walking!
See! I can play too. And for free and free!
I, for one, am looking forward to the inevitable
Wake me when this schmuck actually does something more than flap his lips. He has absolutely no idea about the underpinnings FOSS, instead it's "OMG! (some other) company might be able to leverage the largess of these developers and maybe even make a couple bucks". YAIATH (Yet another idiot at the helm).
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.