Soooo, to paraphrase.... Are you saying that we cannot ever share
knowledge without someone somewhere financing that knowledge or the
act of sharing?
The logic doesn't quite "click" for me. Imagine I write some code,
and retain copyright on it, but share it under GPL. I still own the
copyright. Now imagine this code becomes known as THE way to do XXXX.
Now you, a proprietary company who jealously guards your "intellectual
property", comes across my code and realize the man hours involved in
recreating the functionality is way more expensive than just using my
code. You opt to use my code without changes because it only
facilitates and is a small part of your main application. It is still
under GPL, and I still own the copyright, and you are still free to
use it (assuming you distribute my code with your application). At
this point has there been any patronage? Nope.
Now imagine you want a new feature added to the code, and would rather
hire me to make the 1 hour change, instead of paying your developers a
few days to get up to speed on the code. Whether that change ends up
being your code or part of the core GPL'd code is open for
negotiation. But the project still improves, and I've made some
cash. Still no patronage.
Now imagine that this happens enough that I begin to be seen as a
large corporation that happens to finance the code. Or perhaps my
code becomes so critical to your application that you decide to
contribute large amounts to the ongoing development of my code. Still
no patronage though - just standard business.
But being the devil's advocate sort of guy I am, I can say I DO see
projects that would die without some form of patronage.
So, I think your argument is one of perspective. If you are 100 miles
up looking down and only see "small" patches of trees, well, that is a
completely different view than the guy standing in the middle of one
of those patches and all he sees is trees. Neither view can be
accurate without allowing for the other. Your argument seems to only
take the 100 mile high perspective.
My thoughts.
Shawn
Shawn,
Although the "...argument seems to only take the 100 mile high
perspective..." is apt. You are still looking at things hypothetically.
The truth is, corporations routinely hire developers based on a
two-prong strategy:
a) They get a qualified developer with intimate knowledge on the
particular piece of code/technology they are interested in (think profits)
b) They thus encourage further development and innovation on the
community as a whole (think the appearance of moral or corporate
responsibility; but it's simply a way to safeguard point {a}).
Think of Alan Cox working for Red Hat and Intel
Linus Torvals working for transmeta
The KDE use of Qt Development Frameworks' Qt library before it was GPL'd
Richard Stallman at MIT while developing the GNU Operating System
Gnome being supported by Sun Microsystems (which uses GNOME on their
Java Desktop Systems)
I can go on and on; but I think you get an idea of what I am trying to
say: The relationship between corporations who guard (and wish to guard)
their intellectual property and the open source community is a rather
complex and symbiotic one. The argument of who needs who more than the
other is open to interpretation; but you would be hard pressed to argue
that the entire open source community ("...100 mile high perspective...)
would be able to survive without the corporate patronage (or sponsorship).
I agree that "...the guy standing in the middle of one of those patches
and all he sees is trees.." and one or two projects could survive on its
own; but you must realize that the open source community is not a
"...small patch of tree..."; but a rather large and complex forest. You
MUST be willing to see it from 100 miles up to truly appreciate its
strength and vulnerabilities. You should come up here at least once. The
view 100 miles up is quite spectacular :-)
--
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