Good one :-) On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 14:11, Donald Whytock <dwhyt...@gmail.com> wrote: > Actually, "land-grab" isn't an invalid analogy. Think of a > mountain...Imagine some enterprising nonprof manages to buy a scenic > mountain. A cadre of volunteers sees to it, cleaning up litter and > the occasional forest fire. The nonprof opens up the mountain for > anyone to go play on, as long as they don't unduly damage it. > > This doesn't prevent commercial organizations from exploiting the > mountain. People might sell mountain t-shirts, mountain pictures, > mini mountains, mountain tours, mountain bus trips or travel packages, > rooms in mountain-facing hotels, etc. There's virtually no limit to > the amount of mountain-related business that can be conducted...as > long as the mountain remains untouched. Because all those businesses > rely on the mountain being there. > > The purpose of the nonprof is to preserve the mountain and keep it > untouched, or at least reasonably pristine. As opposed to, say, some > strip-mining company that would, for its own profit, make the mountain > go away. > > And hey, if people from the surrounding businesses want to come in and > pick up trash too, more power to 'em. > > On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Phillip Rhodes > <motley.crue....@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 1:43 PM, Benson Margulies >> <bimargul...@gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> The expression 'land-grab' in here bothers me. >>> >>> I understand (if not agree with) the 'deep philosophy justification' >>> of the FSF for a particular licensing strategy. >>> >>> I understand the views of individuals who don't want to benefit >>> corporations without extracting, at least, some token cooperation in >>> return. >>> >>> I don't understand the analogy in which code is 'land' which can be >>> 'grabbed'. If a corporation takes ALv2 licensed code and uses it to >>> launch some close-source thing, the code isn't used up. It's still >>> there where anyone else can use it for anything else. >>> >> >> Thanks for saying that... I was thinking about making a similar post, but >> hadn't quite found time to >> figure out exactly how to express it. >> >> I realize some people interacting in this current discussion may not be >> long-time participants in ASF >> projects, and / or may be FSF / Free software ideologues... but I think it's >> important to realize that the >> ASF is not the FSF and that the Apache License is written the way it is for >> a reason, and that it reflects >> the ideals of the ASF community. Here, as far as I can tell, it is >> completely acceptable for an entity >> (corporation or otherwise) to take Apache licensed code, put it into a >> proprietary app, and benefit from >> it commercially. Yes, the community most likely finds it *desirable* for >> such an entity to contribute >> back in kind, but it's not required. And here, that's just a normal "par >> for the course" part of the way things >> work. >> >> In short, complaining about what IBM, or any other commercial entity, plans >> to do with the OOo code, and >> spending all this energy worrying about IBM's strategy, and criticizing IBM, >> is not helping this process. >> >> The goal here is to get the code into the incubator, and have a healthy, >> vibrant community emerge that can run >> a viable project according to the Apache way. A lot of this discussion >> strikes me as tangential (at best) to that. >> >> None of this is meant to disparage TDF, LibreOffice, or Free/Libre >> software... but the issues about commercialization >> of the code that might be crucial in some orgs, are not (as) relevant here. >> A healthy, vibrant project is relevant... if >> IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Novell, SCO, or Enron decide to use the code for a >> commercial project, then so be it. >> >> All of this is "IMO" of course. >> >> >> Phil >> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > >
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