**************************************** * LUG meet on 12 Jan. 2003 @ VJTI ****************************************
kapil thanks for elaborating on the concepts --- Kapil Karekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > **************************************** > * LUG meet on 12 Jan. 2003 @ VJTI > **************************************** > > Hi Luggers! > > The issue of IPR is not very important for most of > the programmers. > However it is very important to companies who want > to build a viable > and profitable business. > > The linux lunacy trip was a great eye-opener in this > regard. I have > been searching around for viable Free Software based > business models. > As per my limited understanding of the topic I can > think of three ways > in which the Free Software paradigm can be applied > to s/w development. > > 1. The Free S/w philosophy should be applied > completely when s/w is > being developed by government agencies. Except in > cases where national > security interests are concerned the source for all > s/w developed > should be freely available. The money that the > government is spending > is the people's money and hence everybody has a > right to benefit from > it. This would lower the government's expenditure as > bugs would be > reported and modified faster, and people could adapt > the s/w to suit > their own needs. > > 2. The second option is to provide the source code > only when the > client asks for it. This is the approach which we > normally associate > with the Free S/w philosophy. This is fine for > companies developing > customised s/w for a particular client. However it > doesn't suit well > to companies which are into product development. How > can a company > ensure that the source code for the product > developed after years of > work is not copied by some other company. S/w > hijackers can just lift > snippets of code from the available sorce code and > make a s/w of there > own. This would eat away the market for the original > company. > This brings us to the third option. > > 3. The third option, in my opinion, suits well to > product based > companies. The company should be bound to release > the source code of > the product in the event of > - Support being discontinued for the product. > - The company is being bought by some other > company. > - The company is closing down. > This option sheilds product based companies from > hijackers. It > also gives the option to the clients of the company > to support > themselves when support is no longer available. > > Keep your opinions rolling... > > Cheers :-)) > Kapil Karekar > Libre Technologies > ---------------------------------------- > Let us build a Free Software Economy > ---------------------------------------- > > > -- > _______________________________________________ > > http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers > > > ________________________________________________________________________ Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV. visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com -- _______________________________________________ http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
