[ydl-gen] pathetic

[Derick Centeno]

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:38:18 -0500
Young-Min Park <smpl90s at gmail.com> wrote:

> Don't call yourselves open source if it's not free.  This is an
> outrage to everyone who as ever volunteered their time and expertise
> to open source projects without pay.
> 

Hi Park:

Judging from your comment, it appears there is some misunderstanding of
what is offered as a commercial service/product and what is open source.
Briefly, there are multiple definitions of open source around the world
which are explained here:

http://www.opensource.org/

If you can take the time to explore the various licenses and kinds of
open source commitments which many companies adhere to and expect
their users to adhere to as well, you'll observe the very large breadth
or gap of intention and meaning of all these various licenses -- it is
an education to explore as much of them as possible. Although various
companies do offer some of their software products as "open source"
they define the conditions they choose to do so and those conditions
express widely differing definitions, and circumstances regarding when
such a process will be done.  The expectations and obligations by those
using their software also differ.  Some companies state very clearly
that if the reader doesn't agree to the terms of what the company or
project is offering, then one must not use the software.

Some of what companies and projects offer is committed to open source
only after a period of time and/or under particular circumstances.  PGP
(pgp.com), for instance, makes their contribution in two different
ways.  They offer a trial software product for Windows and OS X which
after 30 days provides some, not all the functions, of their commercial
product.  In other words, the trial version after 30 days, functions as
"free" software has less functionality of the trial version, but
remains quite useful as free software. They also contribute to the
GnuGP project so that gpg2 can run something called OpenPGP or OpenGP
which allows for public keys created with the trial or free version or
other commercial products of PGP to be understood by gpg2.

Individuals and companies have the right to determine the terms and
conditions of their employment.  This means also that a person (an
individual human or commercial entity) can freely determine when they
will charge for services for their product and/or when they will
contribute to open source or other community based or free effort.

The obligation for everyone however is to become clearer regarding
which licenses and commercial/non-commercial obligations or
expectations one is agreeing to.

I prefer an agreement based on a handshake.  We are all a long way from
those days, especially as our current transactions of services span
across the planet.  What we can do however is to clarify the terms and
means of our relationships to one another which although challenging to
examine and consider -- in the long run can help smooth the means for
cooperation.

=========
Refranes/Popular sayings:
The Taino say:No hay mal que por bien no venga.
There is no evil out of which good cannot blossom.
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