Re: Open-Source Nirvana

Johannes Brodwall — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 03:15:35 -0000

Hi, Rod

Thanks for contributing.

I am wondering if you could provide further information or references to the IP issues you refer to. Are these organizational issues (for example: An individual contributor haven't cleared the issues with his employer)?

~Johannes

Re: Open-Source Nirvana

Rod Johnson — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 02:47:17 -0000

Hi Johannes,

I think in general it would be better for the industry as a whole for "consumers" of open source to contribute more back. Yet there are many reasons that doesn't happen so much--not least of them, the IP issues. (For example, we would not want any contributions to Spring that could potentially have unclear IP issues.) I think the issue of advantaging competitors is not so significant--very often, useful contributions are quite generic, like the frameworks themselves. Clearly it would be unreasonable, for example, to expect a company that implemented one of its core business algorithms as an extension of Spring to open that up to its rivals.

But of course using the framework and reporting bugs/suggesting improvements on mailing lists/issue trackers is an important contribution in itself. It is *definitely* short-sighted to be a "silent" user of any project, open source or commercial: not in your interests or anyone else's.

Rgds
Rod

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