[wplug] What a concept - Open Source Projects Can Be Acquired!

[Bill Moran]

Jonathan Billings <jsbillings at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/27/05, Greg Simkins <gregsim at telerama.com> wrote:
> >  
> > http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1306&tag=nl.e539 
> 
> I get the impression from that article that the new company was
> somehow changing the licensing of the software to closed source.  But
> I checked out the sourceforge page, and it seems that they intend to
> continue to be open source, where the company provides support and
> marketing services.
> 
> Looks like the reporter from zdnet is just trying to spread FUD.

Hypothetically, the copyright owner _could_ stop distributing the
code and relicense the code under a closed-source license.
Of course, only the copyright _owner_ could do this.

However, the code that was GPLed can still be distributed and
used as it stood prior to the copyright change.  Look at XFree86
vs. x.org.  Basically, the x.org folks took the XFree86 code as it
existed prior to the license change and went from there.

IMHO, if the company who owns the copyright doesn't want to deal with
the OSS community anymore, then it's better if they do this anyway.
Let the community fork and start a new project.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com