Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 01:40:16 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> To: TonStanco@aol.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: (Fwd) open source article (fwd) Message-ID: <20000309014016.C3503@hades.hell.gr> In-Reply-To: <38C4DE77.2958.3ECE76E@localhost>; from angussf@geoapps.com on Tue, Mar 07, 2000 at 10:48:23AM -0700 References: <38C4DE77.2958.3ECE76E@localhost>
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On Tue, Mar 07, 2000 at 10:48:23AM -0700, Angus Scott-Fleming wrote: > > QUESTION: > > I believe that Open Source is a very important freedom movement, > because, like Harvard's Professor Lessig says, code is law, but with > a non-human police force. With closed code, we'll all be prisoners in > the very near future. So I believe that code MUST be open. Actually, Open Source (OSS, hereafter) is not "law", per se. It is though a way of letting your users roll their own features, since they get all the source. It also helps one with adequate knowledge of programming to pin-point bugs and annoying 'features' more easily, with accurate references to the source itself. It *is* hard to believe that there are so many knowledgable users out there, but it seems that there's an obvious abundance of them... err, "us" I mean. > But can anyone tell me why software can't be both open and sold like > Windows? Oh, but it can. FreeBSD is available either freely over the Internet, or in nice and cozy packaging accompanied by Greg Lehey's excellent book from Walnut Creek. Oh, I said book? Yeah, right... One can always make some money by writing books that provide the users with their nice hardcopy reference for the software one delivers as OSS. > Why is it that software has to be basically given away if it's open? Because, for one thing, if anyone can get the source from the Net, you can bet that they're going to prefer downloading it, if you charge the hell out of them for getting it on a CD-ROM, tape, or anything. > I'm not sure that anyone in Open Source has ever answered this > question. It just seems to be assumed without any critical analysis. Well, I don't want to sound rude, harsh, insulting or anything here, but one who has been using OSS for some time, will usually answer that "it's so bloody bladantly obvious"; and most of the time will not explain it--much to the grief of newcomers to the OSS way of working :/ > Why can't Open Source developers get a royalty percentage of the sale > price just like writers, recording artists or movie actors, and the > product sold just like Windows is through traditional channels, so > that the developers get paid for their work? Oh, you got me here; I really can't think of any good reason not. But, I think that the way copyrights are, well, "used" in other areas, would not fit with the Open Source style licenses. For instance, illegal copying of a book, even one you bought and paid a good sum of your money for, is still illegal. But once you buy a CD-ROM with the FreeBSD source from Walnut Creek, the license of BSD will permit you to make an infinite number of copies for your friends, colleagues, your boss, or his secretaries, your niece, or uncle, etc. Of course, even tough it's so hard to find a formula for charging when giving away copies of your OS software, it's not really hard to find a formula for making money out of supporting users of OSS :-) Ciao - Giorgos Keramidas, < keramida @ ceid . upatras . gr > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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