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- Will Microsoft fit into OSI compromise?
- The last time I wrote about the OSI it was to praise the "peace deal" it made on the licensing front.The question today is, can Microsoft fit inside that deal?At the same OSCON conference where OSI approved its first "attribution" license, Microsoft "good cop" Bill Hilf left said last week...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, Red Hat, Microsoft, Legal, General, Events
- Blog posts 2007-07-31
- OSI avoids open source war
- Let us now praise Michael Tiemann. (Right, by Joi Ito.)When I wrote about open source CRM recently, I had no idea I was opening a Pandora's Box of controversy, which Tiemann proceeded to open on his blog.For a while I was afraid we were about to have a war over...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, Red Hat, management, Legal, General
- Blog posts 2007-07-27
- Sugar sweet for GPLv3
- The big news today is that SugarCRM has bowed to community pressure and will release the next version of its CRM software under an OSI-approved license.The bigger news may be the identity of the license, GPLv3.Currently Sugar uses a version of the Mozilla Public License, adding a non-standard "attribution" requirement...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, resellers, Legal, General, Enterprise Policy, Applications, GPL
- Blog posts 2007-07-26
- Optaros EOS will take the licensing question seriously
- Optaros has launched its Enterprise Open Source Directory.It is a very good thing, better than a plate of Martha Stewart bran muffins. That is partly because it has listing criteria, including only those projects which are truly enterprise class.But in doing this it also includes projects like SugarCRM whose open...
- Tags: support, Standards, Software Licensing, Legal, General, Enterprise Policy, content, Applications
- Blog posts 2007-07-19
- VARs still have Long Reach in small business market
- In the real world of small business, costs matter more than license terms.These are Michael Whitehead's customers at The Long Reach in Ottawa, Canada."All businesses really care is can I get something that's cost effective, which does the job, which is priced to suit my business, and do I have someone...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, resellers, mass market, marketing, Legal, General, Enterprise Policy, Database Management, business models, Applications
- Blog posts 2007-07-13
- Medsphere begin again
- Two years after throwing over its founders and making a public domain code base proprietary, Medsphere is seeking a new CEO and a new start with the open source movement."The community edition licenses are on the Web site – we have a version under Mozilla and then we have a GPL...
- Tags: Applications, Database Management, General, Implementations, Legal, management, Software Licensing, Strategy
- Blog posts 2007-07-06
- It's finished. It's done. GPVv3 that is.
- Why is this GNU smiling?Because with a political flourish the Free Software Foundation has released the final versions of both GPLv3 and LGPLv3.IBM has given its blessing but there is, as yet, no white smoke rising from Portland, where Linus Torvalds has expressed his preference for GPLv2.The new license makes an...
- Tags: Software Licensing, Patents, Linux, Legal, GPL, Google, FOSS
- Blog posts 2007-07-02
- Little red hens of open source CRM
- When we last left our story, Michael Tiemann of the OSI had decided to police the term "open source" and write some CRM companies out. (Picture from Amazon.com.)There comes now another e-mail, this time from the folks at Centric CRM. They have gotten wind of the controversy and want to...
- Tags: Applications, BSD, Database Management, Development, General, GPL, middleware, Software Licensing, Strategy
- Blog posts 2007-06-23
- OSI to defend open source definition aggressively
- My recent story on open source CRM drew few public comments, but today it drew something more important, the attention of OSI President Michael Tiemann of RedHat. (Photo by Joi Ito.)In a piece published at the group's own blog, he asserts that none of the companies I mentioned are in fact...
- Tags: Strategy, Standards, Software Licensing, Legal, General, business models, Applications
- Blog posts 2007-06-21
- Open source does the good-cop, bad-cop routine
- One of the great frustrations in dealing with Microsoft on open source questions is its tendency to play "good-cop bad-cop" games. (The image at right is actually the logo of a record label in Boston, which you might want to visit.)Good-cop bad-cop is a great interrogation technique "As Seen On...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, Patents, Microsoft, Linux Server OS, Linux Desktop OS, Linux, Legal, GPL, General
- Blog posts 2007-06-01
- GPV V3 and hardware modification
- The Free Software Foundation has released its "last call" draft of GPL V3, along with a personal plea from Richard Stallman for folks to upgrade from V2. (This gadget-loving Tux was found at Computer Shopper.)Most discussion of the new release will focus on Novell, which won clearance for its Microsoft...
- Tags: wireless, telecom, Strategy, Software Licensing, mobile, mass market, Legal, Hardware, GPL, Government, FOSS
- Blog posts 2007-06-01
- Your license, or mine?
- Here's an excerpt from a comment on software licensing by Joerg Moellenkamp..as everyone tends to have their own targets and needs, there is no right and wrong about licences. There is only a "does-the-license-fit-or-not". When you look from an economic standpoint CDDL is surely the more sensible license. For...
- Tags: Software Licensing, General
- Blog posts 2007-06-01
- Gartner denies Sugar some love
- The freedom to modify code is as important as any other freedom offered by open source, according to a new note from Gartner Group.In a thinly veiled attack on SugarCRM and its "attribution license," Brian Prentice and Mark Driver advised clients to find their own definition of open source and...
- Tags: Enterprise Policy, Database Management, BSD, Applications, General, GPL, management, Software Licensing
- Blog posts 2007-05-17
- End of the gotcha clause?
- Ever since launching this blog Ive written stories about "gotcha" clauses.These are additions to standard contracts, usually meant to confer some commercial advantage to the provider.It turns out Don Imus had a "gotcha" clause in his contract with CBS. Of course, this was language in an employment contract, not a...
- Tags: Standards, Software Licensing, publishing, Legal, General, content
- Blog posts 2007-05-03
- A sign of desperation from Adobe
- "For some people, open source is a philosophical requirement, a sign of integrity and trust in a vendor. This will close that gap and address any lingering doubts they have about our openness and commitment to community."Jeff Whatcott, vice president for product marketing at Adobes enterprise and developer business unit,...
- Tags: Applications, business models, Development, General, marketing, Software Licensing, Strategy
- Blog posts 2007-04-26
- Eben Moglen leaving Free Software Foundation
- Eben Moglen right announced on his blog this morning he is leaving the board of the Free Software Foundation.The decision is evidence that the third draft of the GPL v.3, which he oversaw, has drawn positive reviews, and will likely go through with few edits.The release of Discussion Draft 3...
- Tags: Software Licensing, politics, GPL, General, FOSS, Legal
- Blog posts 2007-04-25
- Can open source save Second Life?
- Second Life has a lot in common with the Internet, with open source, with me. Lots of buzz, lots of fans, not a lot of money coming in. Its a classic business model problem. (Thats Larry Lessig at Second Life, from News.Com.)Will open sourcing the servers change things?In theory there...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, Internet, General, gaming, business models, Applications
- Blog posts 2007-04-18
- Children of GPL
- In all the hubbub over GPL Version 3, a lot of you may not know this is just one license that the Free Software Foundation manages. (The image stood at the top of Georg Greve's Brave Gnu World columns from 1999-2004.)They also manage the LGPL, or the Lesser GPL. A...
- Tags: Software as a Service, Legal, General, FOSS, Software Licensing, GPL
- Blog posts 2007-04-06
- Is StillSecure open source?
- Once more we have a company playing games with the definition of open source, forcing potential users to look under the hood, read the license agreement carefully, and risk a "gotcha" if they unknowingly violate its terms. (Say hello to my leetle frahnd. From the Boston Herald.)This time its StillSecure,...
- Tags: Strategy, Software Licensing, Security, marketing, management, Legal, General, Applications
- Blog posts 2007-04-04
- No open source pressure in Viacom-Google case
- Why write about Viacoms suit against Google in an open source blog?Because there but for the grace of open source goes software. (The image is from the ZDNet blog of Donna Bogatin, who holds a different, albeit quite valid, view on these topics.)Back at the turn of the century stories...
- Tags: Google Inc., Business Software Alliance, Viacom Inc., open source, piracy
- Blog posts 2007-03-13
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