Jason Matusow, Director of Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative, is a smart guy. I’ve heard him speak in person. He’s managed to keep his job for a few years while weathering unfriendly crowds and debates with the likes of Larry Lessig. So, clearly, when he says the following, I can only imagine it’s planned FUD: But […]
So Marc Fleury is a successful figure in the open-source business world. It’s very clear that he’s succeeded in business, but it’s not so clear that he understands open-source very well, and that may come back to bite him. And since he’s a Frenchman, too, hopefully he’ll take my criticism well, if he ever reads […]
As nearly everyone has pointed out, Bill Gates is telling the world that Intellectual Property moderates are, in fact, communists. This type of craziness isn’t new, not even for Microsoft. Way back in 2000, I wrote about how free software is, in fact, pro-capitalism. Then, after an MS executive first employed the “Communist” name-calling in […]
By now, it’s pretty clear to anyone with a clue (including the National Retail Federation) that SCO is up to no good with their bogus lawsuits claiming Linux violates their intellectual property. What’s becoming clearer now is the bogus nature of their own understanding of what’s good for the customer. In their 5 reasons to […]
I attended Monday’s presentation by Darl McBride of SCO. You can even see me asking Darl a question about SCO going after end-users (I’m the guy with the EFF t-shirt at the bottom-center of the picture). For a few months, I’ve been asking myself whether SCO truly believes their own story, or whether they’re simply […]
Twenty years ago, Richard Stallman started the GNU project to provide a liberated alternative to highly-constrained closed software. The idea was and remains simple: users should be in full control of their software, including running it, modifying it, and restributing their modifications. Throughout the years, Stallman has often been characterized as a freak, a man […]
Imagine, for a second, Ford accusing Toyota of stealing their clever headlight technology. Toyota responds “bull, that is ridiculous,” then Ford turns around and declares “okay, then, before the courts make any decision on the validity of our claims, we’re going to discredit you in the press, take cheap shots like calling you ‘thieves’, and […]
Tim O’Reilly says: paradigm shift: software as a commodity. Small, reusable pieces new killer apps: Google, Amazon, eBay, Paypal open-source licenses don’t work because no redistribution occurs for these killer apps the value in software is moving up the stack, specifically to lock-in via user data. This is a very interesting and useful analysis. Noticing […]