A discussion of hybrid open source and proprietary licensing models.

[Andrea Glorioso <sama AT miu-ft.org>]

>>>>> "Marshall" == Marshall W Van Alstyne <marshall AT MIT.EDU> writes:

    > Here's an interesting post from Slashdot suggesting that they
    > can...  Posted by <http://cmdrtaco.net/>CmdrTaco on Tuesday
    > April 26, @11:11AM from the i-just-don't-get-this-one dept.
    > <http://startup.blogscorp.com>prostoalex writes "Can an open
    > source project be acquired? ZDNet's Between The Lines
    > <http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=1306>says yes, one just
    > did. Software startup JasperSoft acquired Sourceforge-based
    > project <http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/>JasperReports,
    > which involved acquiring the copyrights and hiring the lead
    > developer for the project." I guess the point he tries to make
    > is that the new corporate overloads can essentially have a free
    > and non-free version of the code, and more or less orphan the
    > free version. The problem of course is that if the non-free
    > version gets good, others will simply fork.

I  don't want  to   sound unpolite, but..    so  what?  This is  basic
copyright law at work, nothing new under the sun.  Actually, I believe
that   the  question  "can  open  source  projects   be acquired?"  is
misleading in  its wording, because what can  be acquired (or changed,
or rent, or whatever)  are  the economic rights over   a work -  moral
rights can't, but I guess this is not a problem for the US law system.
All of  this, assuming the  "seller" has all the   rights over a work,
which in most FLOSS projets is not the case, as far as I know.

Maybe I'm missing  something relevant, and I  admit I  didn't read the
comments on  Slashdot (I only have  that many hours to  spend in a day
:).

Ciao,

--
Andrea Glorioso             sama AT miu-ft.org         +39 333 820 5723
        .:: Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia ::.
              Conquering the world for fun and profit

Attachment: pgpA_orZw8JaN.pgp
Description: PGP signature