Editing Problems with free software and open source models
The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
'''Problems with free software and open source models''' for discussion: | '''Problems with free software and open source models''' for discussion: | ||
1. ''issue'' - " | 1. ''issue'' - "No restrictions on field of use" means that software is explicitly licensed for military purposes, spying purposes, selling environmentally and socially destructive products, hiding activities of companies, and anything else that opponents of [[moral purchasing]] may want to do. There is no legal recourse. While there are few incentives to subvert operating system or database software, there are ''many'' incentives to subvert or gain advantage in the operations of a [[healthy buying infrastructure]]. With no way to restrict these activities with civil court action, only technical means are available to subvert such subversion - wasting everyone's time in an [[arms race]] that is to no one's advantage. | ||
:''position'' - there should be quite specific hard restrictions on use of any [[Consumerium License]] software, at least, what a [[Consortium license]] tends to contain: "no using this software to set up your own competing consortium." | :''position'' - there should be quite specific hard restrictions on use of any [[Consumerium License]] software, at least, what a [[Consortium license]] tends to contain: "no using this software to set up your own competing consortium." | ||
2. ''issue'' - No party with power to sue. Under [[GPL]] and other free software licenses, "the community" is assumed to exist and have some powers of persuasion, but they have no practical powers to actually force the license terms to be met. What rights they have are not enforceable since they lack a [[self-funding]] model that would reward enforcers or even require cooperation from contributors whose work is appropriated. For example, most GPL abusers simply thumb their noses at the FSF, knowing they cannot possibly be sued given limits on FSF resources. They could settle out of court for less than theya re making from violating the license anyway, in the worst case, or agree to simply work around or re-engineer the software. By contrast: Consortium and private licenses, and some open source licenses like the [[BSD]], specify exactly who can and must act to protect license integrity. And some like [[Java]] have proven successful even at shutting down [[Microsoft]]'s attempted license abuse. | 2. ''issue'' - No party with power to sue. Under [[GPL]] and other free software licenses, "the community" is assumed to exist and have some powers of persuasion, but they have no practical powers to actually force the license terms to be met. What rights they have are not enforceable since they lack a [[self-funding]] model that would reward enforcers or even require cooperation from contributors whose work is appropriated. For example, most GPL abusers simply thumb their noses at the FSF, knowing they cannot possibly be sued given limits on FSF resources. They could settle out of court for less than theya re making from violating the license anyway, in the worst case, or agree to simply work around or re-engineer the software. By contrast: Consortium and private licenses, and some open source licenses like the [[BSD]], specify exactly who can and must act to protect license integrity. And some like [[Java]] have proven successful even at shutting down [[Microsoft]]'s attempted license abuse. | ||
Line 12: | Line 12: | ||
4. ''issue'' [[self-interested fork problem]] - there are already Adbusters and other groups' versions of this possibly being created, and no doubt stores will come up with "their own". To prevent this requires cutting a balance so that a self-interested party has every incentive to use Consumerium, but once they have committed to it, have no easy ability to fork it. | 4. ''issue'' [[self-interested fork problem]] - there are already Adbusters and other groups' versions of this possibly being created, and no doubt stores will come up with "their own". To prevent this requires cutting a balance so that a self-interested party has every incentive to use Consumerium, but once they have committed to it, have no easy ability to fork it. | ||