On Thu, 2008-01-17 at 16:53 -0800, Nitzan Kon wrote: > --- Craig Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > It seems somewhat hypocritical to rely on trademark protection in one > > instance but abuse it in another. > > Isn't this "business as usual" for most companies though? a law that > benefits the bottom line is a good law, and a law that hurts the bottom > line is a bad law - and to hell with the customer... it's called human > nature. ;) (and it's a bad thing...) > > -- Nitzan > I am a partner in an open source company and truly believe in the process. I also believe in capitalism and support the effort of anyone to try and make a profit. However what I don't believe in is the attempt to ride the backs of the open source community without regard for the long term benefit of that same community. It seems success breeds a desire to capitalize on that success, and while I don't begrudge Mark for his success, it shouldn't come at the detriment of the community that helped make him successful.
The downfall of many companies with a great idea is the influx of venture capital, once venture comes in to play no longer do you have the luxury of doing good things, now you are working for the all mighty dollar (I am American!). Venture capitalists do not care about the community, nor do they care about little ole us, they only care about a return on their investment and they will break the back of anyone that stands in the way of that occurring. I have been a part of the community for almost five years and at the start was all for the Asterisk project, because I believed someone wanted to do good at the same time as doing well for themselves. Based on the events of the last 12 to 18 months I now question if there was ever a time when there was a desire to do good! I am no longer in support of Asterisk, as it has stopped being "The Asterisk project" and has instead become Digium's asterisk product. I wasn't excited to support a company, I was excited about helping to support the concept of an open source telephony project, but again in my opinion that no longer truly exists. I wish success to the company Digium, simply because a group of people work there that need to support there families. I also pay homage to Mark for the idea of an open source PBX, as it has been a catalyst for development of other community telephony projects. To all of you that still have the "I believe in Asterisk" button pushed, great, however I believe it will be harder and harder to keep it pushed based on the kinds of actions that have been taken in the past and will continue to be taken in future to protect Digium at the expense of the Asterisk community. Wishing all of you a healthy and prosperous 2008. Dave _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
