Hi all,
I'm an employee at JasperSoft, and I would like to take some time to clear up some misconceptions going around in this discussion about JasperReports and JasperSoft.
First off, nobody ever said anything about JasperReports becoming closed source. JasperReports will always remain open source, and the open source projectwill continue to be enhanced. We are helping Teodor Danciu (the author of JasperReports) devote more time to JasperReports and bring on more contributers. Frankly, to acquire all the rights to a successful open source project and then close the source would be insane - what's the point?
Take a look as JBoss as an example of a company doing similar work. They have "acquired" Hibernate, Nukes, jBPM, etc in a manner very similar to what we have done with JasperReports. I think there is concern here because JBoss is an open source company, and the ZD story calls us "a commercial software company". We (and JBoss) are both - a commercial company that offers open source software. The commercial side makes its profit by selling support and services, and possibly add-on functionality.
Personally I think a lot of the discussion here is ignoring the real question - "what does the acquisition mean to current users of JasperReports?" The heart and soul of an open source project consist of the developers AND the community using and enhancing the project. What does JasperSoft mean to the JasperReports users? It means that JasperReports development will continue, and that Teodor Danciu will spend more time working on it than he could previously. It means people who want to use JasperReports but require support will have a place to go to.
-Barry Klawans
It looks like the pages are hosted at Apple's.Mac, and if you use the.Mac services to create a web site with movies, it automatically uses the EMBED tag. Maybe Apple figures people will buy QuickTime Pro just to get the "Save" link working from the player...
-BearKlaw
Well, since I am the Barry Klawans who made the submission you are commenting on, I want to make a few comments here.
First, I DO NOT share those files on a P2P network, or any network at all. I keep them for personal use only. Even if I did share them, I do not believe I would be violating any copyright laws. All of those recordings were originally purchased by my father in the 30s, and many have been unavailable for over 50 years. I believe that such works are considered in the public domain.
Second, it is true that you can purchase a turntable capable of playing a 78 rpm record today. Good ones are not cheap, and cheap ones do not have the proper stylus to play a 78. Using the wrong stylus both damages the 78 and sounds like crap.
Third, the fact that I can purchase a turntable that plays 78 today does not weaken my original argument. What if I had said I had a collection of Edison cylinders - would you agree then? Will I still be able to purchase such a turntable in 10 years? 50 years? It is the future that I am worried about, not the present. What if a future medium contains a protection schemes require a keyserver to play back, and that server gets shut down? No amount of money will enable owners to material encoded on that medium to recover the material they thought they owned.
Slashdot Mirror
Hi all, I'm an employee at JasperSoft, and I would like to take some time to clear up some misconceptions going around in this discussion about JasperReports and JasperSoft. First off, nobody ever said anything about JasperReports becoming closed source. JasperReports will always remain open source, and the open source projectwill continue to be enhanced. We are helping Teodor Danciu (the author of JasperReports) devote more time to JasperReports and bring on more contributers. Frankly, to acquire all the rights to a successful open source project and then close the source would be insane - what's the point? Take a look as JBoss as an example of a company doing similar work. They have "acquired" Hibernate, Nukes, jBPM, etc in a manner very similar to what we have done with JasperReports. I think there is concern here because JBoss is an open source company, and the ZD story calls us "a commercial software company". We (and JBoss) are both - a commercial company that offers open source software. The commercial side makes its profit by selling support and services, and possibly add-on functionality. Personally I think a lot of the discussion here is ignoring the real question - "what does the acquisition mean to current users of JasperReports?" The heart and soul of an open source project consist of the developers AND the community using and enhancing the project. What does JasperSoft mean to the JasperReports users? It means that JasperReports development will continue, and that Teodor Danciu will spend more time working on it than he could previously. It means people who want to use JasperReports but require support will have a place to go to. -Barry Klawans
It looks like the pages are hosted at Apple's .Mac, and if you use the .Mac services to create a web site with movies, it automatically uses the EMBED tag. Maybe Apple figures people will buy QuickTime Pro just to get the "Save" link working from the player...
-BearKlaw
Well, since I am the Barry Klawans who made the submission you are commenting on, I want to make a few comments here.
First, I DO NOT share those files on a P2P network, or any network at all. I keep them for personal use only. Even if I did share them, I do not believe I would be violating any copyright laws. All of those recordings were originally purchased by my father in the 30s, and many have been unavailable for over 50 years. I believe that such works are considered in the public domain.
Second, it is true that you can purchase a turntable capable of playing a 78 rpm record today. Good ones are not cheap, and cheap ones do not have the proper stylus to play a 78. Using the wrong stylus both damages the 78 and sounds like crap.
Third, the fact that I can purchase a turntable that plays 78 today does not weaken my original argument. What if I had said I had a collection of Edison cylinders - would you agree then? Will I still be able to purchase such a turntable in 10 years? 50 years? It is the future that I am worried about, not the present. What if a future medium contains a protection schemes require a keyserver to play back, and that server gets shut down? No amount of money will enable owners to material encoded on that medium to recover the material they thought they owned.
-Barry Klawans