Re: CS2007: An Open Source Requiem? Read your license...

Mariette ~ A grain of salt is always healthy. But "never" actually does apply quite literally in one sense (and this is absolutely key to understand). What differentiates DotNetNuke is the use of the specific BSD license that ensures what is already in distribution cannot be retroactively changed (as can be in many other license forms). No viral clause can be added. No additional limitations or restrictions can ever be applied. No threat of a licensing fee can be made. Never. And this freedom and guarantee have been purposefully employed since the very first day. Technically, the grain of salt is accurate because nothing legally prohibits an attempted future license change (nor could it). But the practical reality is that on day one, DotNetNuke deliberately "swallowed the red pill"... ensuring a course that could not be deviated from. The very success of DotNetNuke (built on this liberal license) ensures that it cannot die. Would you let it die? Would 440,000 other people who cared enough to register let it die? Would vendors, hoster and service providers who have staked livelihood on it let it die? I submit that changing the license would be commensurate to an attempted suicide... one to which 440,000 would respond. If you include me... 440,001 :)

Re: CS2007: An Open Source Requiem? Read your license...

Outrage? Hmmm. Looking back at my own thoughts I guess you can read some outrage into it. So be it. But is it really that hard to understand? Further, is it really toward one specific product or toward an all too prevalent attitude in business that twists open source ideals and hoodwinks the trusting and unsuspecting? Stephen Covey articulates very clearly one of the most pervasive wisdoms of effective business: "Begin with the end in mind". Its true that decisions are sometimes made which require re-thinking and retraction. We've made them ourselves. It happens. But licensing is an absolutely FOUNDATIONAL concept. One in which much strategy, legal investment and boardroom level consultation is vested. It is quite literally, in keeping with this simple Covey principle, "the beginning". When the beginning is full of loopholes which permit change to the foundation... you can bet that they will eventually be used. This is why licensing is so important. Is there a problem with making money? Is there a problem with licensing other than open source? Of course not. But there is a problem (IMHO) with allowing convenient misperceptions to exist and to capitalize on those misperceptions to the detriment of others. Its even more of a problem when the fallout from those acts spill over onto other communities. EVERY true open source application suffers when one which "used to be" open source, encouraged community involvement and contribution, changes dramatically. Those of us who read words like these blogs have some understanding, we (somewhat unfortunately) are able to rationalize events. But the net result to those simply trying to do something wonderful in the world (like run a philanthropy, build a business to support a family, contribute something to the aid of others) do, in fact suffer. Isn't volume limitation on usage an upsell by definition? Doesn't limitation on revenue penalize success, even take away from communities? A philanthropy that falsley believes conveniently misperceived ideals of "open source" (or "shared source" or whatever it might be called) and becomes successful in its own community can be forced to cough up money pay someone... or else go to the expense of figuring out how to move onto another platform that won't hold them hostage or limit their success without requiring compensation. That seems outrageous to me...

Re: CS2007: An Open Source Requiem? Read your license...

So what happens to a service provider who creates customer offerings based on the reasonable expectation of believable licensing and fees... when that licensing and those fees change? What happens when a business (SOHO, SMB or other) invests in personnel, skills development, infrastructure, process change, business strategy & pricing when the rug is pulled from under that? Imagine the predicament of the hosting provider who takes the recommendations of a trusted business partner and puts an application into production (expending all the investment of time & resources required to do so)... signs up lots of customers in a modest-margin business... and is then confronted with a license change that may actually put them upside down (potentially paying more than they are making)? Do they abandon their customers? Do they try to explain that its not their fault? Do they lower service levels to achieve profitability to the dissatisfaction of their clients? What happens to an ecosystem that relies on those customers and their satisfaction with the platform & services available? This is just one type of scenario that illustrates the complexity of license changes... and why anyone seeking a platform for their efforts (business, educational, government, benevolent or personal) should understand them. If your efforts are based on a foundation of shifting assumptions... then your effort is subject to change beyond your influence. Back to the point... always read your license.