Open Source Licensing And Business Models - Andrew Hall

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via Gina Likins at the ‘Red Hat Open Source Community’ blog

Copyleft is not a specific license, but rather a term that describes all licenses that allow derivative works, but require derivates (if distributed) to use the same license as the original work.

He went on to explain that not all open source licenses are copyleft – there are permissive licenses (like the BSD and MIT licenses), which mean that software released under that license can be used in programs that are distributed under any other type of license, including proprietary ones.

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That would have helped during the license thread for sure. It is interesting though in several ways, here are my initial thoughts (not company / community policy).

1: In terms of copyleft - we should try our hardest to enforce
2: What is easier for companies is not necessarily better for the communities around them

More interesting though and this is one reason SAFE is such a fantastic opportunity is the “how do you sustain it” or “how to make money”.

We have that inbuilt in safecoin, not only for the original authors but further contributors/users/ content providers/content consumers etc. (we can do a load more on the provider side though). Also for us the dual license is a unique position, we do not want to hold gpl and say hey this is hard you need a commercial license, I want to say “Hey you need to be open secure and respectful of privacy” so yes if you really need a commercial license then we have many options, again not policy but thoughts

1: The purchase shall be in safecoin
2: The funds are pooled and added to the developer pool for all community developers (and very importantly researchers)
3: Any derived product must be safecoin friendly
4: etc.

The interesting part is maidsafe has made the leap to survive in safecoin, just as the community will, so adoption lifts the tide for us all together. This is interesting as it means there is no single player exploitation, but a whole eco-system that just needs to improve. I figure as long as everyone sees this opportunity that for maidsafe (as an example) to survive, we all survive, or replace survive with benefit or better yet replace maidsafe with any net contributor.

This is one reason this project is such a challenge in many ways to not only secure efficient networking and data protection, but also to business models. If we get it right the model of kill the competition will be replaced with one that means everyone doing stuff people want is rewarded automatically and without judgement. This is a baby step and a huge journey, but imagine a system where producers do not need to negotiate terms, but release features and if they are great then they are valuable and automatically.

The next steps will be to take that beyond software and into all areas of business, such as art, music, movies, medical advances and further. As this net widens then so should the catchment zone, by that I mean we tear down the phoney borders and restrictions that prevent most of humanity from being involved and we involve everyone. Then the tide of success will lift everyone’s wee boat together.

We are the Argentine ant colony then :wink:

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So well put. I strongly agree with your thoughts on a future lead by creators versus consumers.

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@dirvine:

If we get it right the model of kill the competition will be replaced with one that means everyone doing stuff people want is rewarded automatically and without judgement.

Without this, frankly I believe our civilisation is on its last.

Technology that solves piecemeal problems (like energy scarcity, food shortages etc) won’t save us from the global addiction to fear & profit, but technologies that enable us to reconnect with our communal creativity and appreciation for all beings, for this wonderful gift of life, just might.

ProjectSAFE is one of these bright hopes. :slight_smile:

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Viva la radical abundance!!

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This is the best way to ensure value is reciprocated I’d think.

Do you have a stance on the code being utilized within blockchain projects? i.e would it be wise to keep the lines of differentiation there. If something goes amiss in the blockchain world, maybe a clear separation is an advantage.

The interesting part is maidsafe has made the leap to survive in safecoin, just as the community will, so adoption lifts the tide for us all together

haha thats the scary part :slight_smile:

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Do you mean a future where creative people are freed from the constraints of consumerism for everyone’s benefit

or

where ‘creators’ get to set prices and collude and where ‘creators’ get to control the end user interfaces and suppliers have no problem determining exactly what wages will be and where SAFE is the ultimate DRM? I’d want the exact opposite, a society without supply side dominance, I don’t even see a balance I think any kind of supply side control is an unsustainable disaster. Everyone is a creator.

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I guess I was thinking about the topic in simple terms. Two types of people in the world: 1) Creative people that spend all their time creating; like artists, coders, inventors; 2) Consumers (Corporations), who spend all their time figuring out how to control/use/consume the creations of the creators.

The current system almost always puts the creative people at a disadvantage because they don’t like spending time finding a way to be monetarily rewarded, because they are always focused on creating.

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Looks handy

Software Freedom Law Center Guide to GPL Compliance 2nd Edition

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