the value of software does not reside in the source code

[zscoundrel]

The concept of "the competition will steal my best ideas and drive me 
out of business' is a crock.  It is a zero-sum outlook that does not 
take basic human behavior into account.

Ideas are free.  Necessity is the mother of invention.  If you share 
your ideas, people will use it - not steal it.  If your software does 
want they want, people will use it - not steal it.

RedHat and Mandrake both come with games.  Most of us have played at 
least some of these at one point or another.  How many of us have 
actually COMPILED one - unless we had to do so to get the silly thing to 
work?  How many of us have made changes to Freecell or Gnome Mines and 
released it???

IU have only seen a couple of versions of mines or freecell floating 
around.  I have seen a number of different versions of reverse 
engineered windows apps floating around because it you NEED to change 
something, you have to start from scratch and reinvent the wheel.  Once 
you do that, you have no reason NOT to release your app as a whole new 
package.

Another thing not taken into account is the expert principle.  If you 
write some software, you are going to be much more familiar with it and 
how it works than someone who comes along 18 months later, makes some 
changes and releases it as their own.  It will be much easier for the 
original author to incorporate the changes they like into the original 
application and roll it out to their customers.  It takes LESS effort 
than trying to keep proprietary software up to date.

Proprietary software companies are in some ways similar to a labor 
union.  They want to be able to exert influence on how you run your 
business - not for your profit, but for their own.  In the latest 
license for FrontPage, you agreed not to say anything bad about Microsoft.

What if you have 20 web developers earning around $1,000,000 and 
Microsoft takes exception to something - true or not - that yo published 
on the net.  You lose your license to software you paid for and suddenly 
your are paying almost 4 grand a day in payroll costs for people with 
software skills they can not legally use.

Ray Hanes wrote:

> Well you make a good arguement. But the simple fact that linux exists and
> many others are building thier own addons kind of shoots the arguement down.
> 
> Unless I'm missing part of the conversation here. Which is possible since I
> just kind of jumped in here.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Coleman" <mkc+dated+1012517714.144b15 at mathdogs.com>
> To: "Marvin Bellamy" <Marvin.Bellamy at innovision.com>
> Cc: "Kclug" <kclug at kclug.org>
> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 4:55 PM
> Subject: Re: the value of software does not reside in the source code
> 
> 
> 
>>Marvin Bellamy <Marvin.Bellamy at innovision.com> writes:
>>
>>>I disagree with you, here...then I'm not totally sold on the open source
>>>movement.  I work for a small company with a niche market.  If our code
>>>
> was
> 
>>>open source, it'd be damned easy for others to encroach on our turf. I
>>>
> don't
> 
>>>think you can assume honesty on the part of other companies. Look at M$.
>>>
> If
> 
>>>they have the opportunity, they'll steal code and attrit the little guy
>>>
> with
> 
>>>litigation.
>>>
>>Though I mention Open Source in my post, that wouldn't be my first choice
>>
> in
> 
>>most situations.  Consider a few options short of OS, more or less in
>>
> order of
> 
>>decreasing restrictiveness:
>>
>>1.  Release source with license only allowing users to read it.  No
>>    compilation, alteration, redistribution.  I think most vendors would
>>
> have
> 
>>    a fit about even this sort of disclosure, but in reality source code
>>    encumbered this way would be very unlikely to result in customers not
>>    buying your product or competitors somehow capitalizing.  What's your
>>    customer going to do?  Copy it and start supporting it themselves?
>>
> Dumb,
> 
>>    very dumb.
>>
>>    What's your competitor going to do?  Illegally include it in their
>>
> code?
> 
>>    Anyone that's been programming for a while has run into situations
>>
> where
> 
>>    some customer or manager has dropped a huge hairy undocumented ball of
>>    code on them gotten from elsewhere (meaning that the original authors
>>
> are
> 
>>    gone, dead, incompetent or otherwise unhelpful).  As a programmer,
>>
> just
> 
>>    reading that should make you cringe--the last thing you want to do is
>>    start development on that codebase.  You might be able to reverse
>>
> engineer
> 
>>    a few bits of useful info about some API or hardware interface, but
>>
> beyond
> 
>>    that, send it to the dumpster.
>>
>>    In some ways it's worse than useless.  If you read such code, you risk
>>    being sued in the future, whether you copy from it or not.
>>
>>2.  Release source under the GPL.  Some of the above applies to this
>>    alternative as well.  It's one thing to have the source; it's another
>>    entirely to command the attention of talented programmers that
>>
> designed
> 
>>    and implemented it.  The GPL does give customers the alternative to
>>
> choose
> 
>>    other support, but if you're treating them at all reasonably, they'd
>>
> be
> 
>>    fools to do so.
>>
>>    And as for your competitors?  Sure, they could develop with your
>>
> codebase,
> 
>>    but that's arguably good for you.  First, you get to sell the results
>>
> of
> 
>>    their efforts.  And second, their customers see that the product
>>
> they're
> 
>>    selling was originally developed by *you*.  Most competitors are
>>
> unlikely
> 
>>    to choose this path even if it would be a net benefit for them, and
>>    rapacious, monopolistic competitors never will.
>>
>>    (Generally speaking I'd stop here.  I think Open Source licenses are
>>    mostly useful for specific tactical situations.)
>>
>>That's all just opinion, but I'm not aware of any real-world
>>
> counterexamples.
> 
>>Mike
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
>