There is No Open Source Community

porkrind writes "There is no Open Source Community is an Onlamp article about the economics of open source and how most people get it wrong. Really, open source is much more about supply and demand than it is about an activist community or individual drivers (individuals or individual companies) affecting change on society." From the article: "Taking the position that individuals have pushed open source forward leads to the conclusion that a core group of ideological 'believers' is necessary for the continued success of open source software. Businesses unaware of the falsehood of this claim are too afraid of running afoul of the 'open source community' and sometimes make decisions that are not in their financial interests. Both open source-based and proprietary software vendors need to challenge these assumptions."

Re:Fallacious argument in article summary

[JesseL]

Are you an idiot? Did you read the sentence right after the one you quoted? The one that says:
"Businesses unaware of the falsehood of this claim are too afraid of running afoul of the 'open source community' and sometimes make decisions that are not in their financial interests."

Re:The Corporate Nightmare & Employee Torture

[DDLKermit007]

Actually in the graphic design filed with editing such stuff most "photography" is bought as "stock" with the photographer not being able to say what we do with it, but still able to sell his original to others. Modifying a design done by an agency under contract can be a bit more sticky depending on how good your contracts are. As long as your agency isn't the seedy variety and puts in a clause about any changes must go through them (they want to milk you for more money) there are no issues generaly. Having Artists Guilds is invaluable when you need a readymade contract and your freelance.

Re:The Corporate Nightmare & Employee Torture

[Anonymous Coward]

:sigh: So many misinformed people...

If I write a program, it's automatically--under federal and international law--my intellectual property; I hold the copyright to it, and I retain all rights to the software. The obvious right I hold is the right to make copies of the software.

Because using my program requires making a copy of it (i.e., downloading it from my Web site, copying it from a disc, or through some other medium), it follows that all users must obtain permission to copy the software; how does one go about obtaining copyright permissions from the software author? Licenses. Licenses are the legal means by which an author gives (i.e. "grants") users copyright privileges.

You can't just download a GPL-licensed program and use it without agreeing to the terms of the license; the license is the legal means by which the author gives the end-user the permission to copy--and thereby the permission to use--the software.

It's like if I was to draw a picture. I hold the copyright to the picture. You don't need my permission to look at my picture, but if you want to look at my picture at your house, you either need to a) take the original with you to your house [in which case you definitely need my permission], or b) make a duplicate of my picture and take the duplicate [in which case you need my permission to make the duplicate].