eLiberatica Abstract: Understanding Free Software and Open Source Licensing
Much to my friend Lucian's dismay, I have been sitting (a.k.a. not doing a damn thing) on the abstracts for my upcoming sessions at the Romanian eLiberatica conference.
The first abstract is easy — I will present a slightly modified version of my Age of Literate Machines presentation.
The second session will take a little bit more work — I need to present a very practical, "how do I make money with open source" session for Romanian software entrepreneurs and business managers.
Here's my first take at an abstract. Any thoughts?
Understanding Free Software and Open Source Licensing
This presentation will provide a simple and practical overview of the common business concerns relating to Free Software and Open Source licensing such as:
- Can I sell Free Software?
- When I build software using Free Software (such as Firefox, PHP, GCC or Linux), when must I share my source code?
- Is it safe to use Free Software inside my company?
- What are the common business models built around Free Software?
Major points in the presentation will be supported with examples from the business world, including examples from Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft.
Also, for any Romanian business people and technologists reading this post, what questions about Free Software and Open Source licensing keep you awake at night?
Tags: Abstract, Abstract, Bucharest, conference, eLiberatica, Event, Events, eZ, Firefox, Free Software, FSF, GCC, GNU compiler collection, Linux, Lucian Savluc, money, Mozilla, open source initiative, OSI, PHP, RomaniaRelated posts
Posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 20:15
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April 4th, 2008 at 1:46
This entry is not very interesting, when you only present four points that you want to stress in your talk.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:54
… and what do you expect from a session abstract? :)
April 4th, 2008 at 2:00
Hi Zak!
A little note about Free Software and PHP. PHP is not a Free Software but fits more and more in one of this open source projects. It is still (and will stay so) free as in beer though. My point is not about ranting about PHP being less open lately (CLA, private mailing lists, etc.) but it is a relatively old fact that PHP is not Free but simply free ;).
April 4th, 2008 at 2:56
Hey Pierre!
It sounds like you want to discuss the PHP community instead of what type of license the PHP software is distributed under. PHP (the software) is very clearly Free Software/Open Source Software.
The PHP community is a different thing. Communities are not Free Software or Open Source Software — they are structures that form around the commonly shared knowledge.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:13
Re!
> It sounds like you want to discuss the PHP community instead of
I actually discuss the license, hence my comment "My point is not about ranting about /the/ PHP /community/ being less open lately…"
> what type of license the PHP software is distributed under. PHP (the software) is
> very clearly Free Software/Open Source Software.
It is very clearly Open Source Software, however it is not Free Software. The Open Source provides a list of Open Source Licenses, PHP License is obviously listed there (but the license text uses the 3.0 version instead of the last version 3.01).
PHP is not Free Software (as in Freedom), it may be discussed but so far I tend to agree more and more with the GNU definition (except for the viral form but that's another topic ;).
A couple of links about the difference (some are objective other not but they give a good exaplanation of each definition):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software#Open_source_software_versus_free_software
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-software-for-freedom.html
April 4th, 2008 at 3:17
> I tend to agree more and more with the GNU definition (except for the viral form but that's another topic ;).
I wanted to say with the FSF definition, GNU are sometimes too extreme for my taste :)
April 4th, 2008 at 4:24
Hey Pierre,
I do understand the difference. :)
The Free Software Foundation very clearly considers version 3.01 of the PHP license to be a free software license. Just take a look at their list of free software licenses:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html
April 4th, 2008 at 5:13
Oh my bad, my mistake then. It is indeed Free Software. I missed that change and was confused with the GPL incompatibilities. Sorry for the noise :-) >> [ ]
April 4th, 2008 at 9:46
Hi Zak. For people starting a business based on open source software, I would think that explaining the benefits of OSS to potential customers would be important.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:55
Good point — Thanks Jen!
April 4th, 2008 at 10:16
To be honest, I expect nothing from a session abstract with Open Source Licensing as topic, because I am not one of those "software entrepreneurs and business managers" who probably haven't heard of this. When I entered this page I've expected more definitions rather then announcements. So I was a bit disappointed then. Please excuse me about that.
April 8th, 2008 at 16:28
[...] Understanding Free Software and Open Source Licensing [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 16:32
Thank you Zak! I just looking forward for your speech. I invited Romanians to check you post and eventually give their feedback. I bet there will be lots of questions related to this speech at eLiberatica. I strongly consider that is very important to start with the right step when doing business using FLOSS technologies. And one of the most important things are the licenses.
(http://www.cianblog.com/2008/04/08/understanding-free-software-and-open-source-licensing/)
April 12th, 2008 at 18:19
Hi Zak!
I saw your proposal for the 2nd presentation for eLiberatica Conference. It is very interesting that you'll speak about how to do business around Open Source and Free Software. I think that it would be very usefull to make obvious in your presentation different aspects regarding community building, how to involve community in product development, product documentation. It would be good for people to find out about the benefits of adopting a business model based on FOSS (low costs for marketing and selling processes, better development process). I also think that another problem is about "customer education" - it will be interesting to touch this subject (How to make our customer to adopt an open source solution? how to make the customer to pay for something "free"?). These are my opinions, instead the topic of presentation sound very interesting. See you at eLiberatica!
April 12th, 2008 at 18:45
Hi Alina,
Thanks for the suggestions!
I only have 30-40 minutes for the presentation - I don't think that I can cover the essentials of licensing + community dynamics + benefits + production models + customer education. That is an entire conference of content. :)