[asterisk-biz] General development funding: discussion and survey

[SIP]

Jared Smith wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-10-31 at 10:20 -0400, Steve Totaro wrote:
>   
>> A profit margin for Asterisk or Digium?  Where is the line drawn here.
>> The line was moved quite a bit with Adwords debacle.  
>>     
>
> John isn't suggesting in any way that this would be for Digium's
> financial benefit -- he's simply trying to see if there's interest from
> the community in having an easier way for community members to help fund
> community development.
>
>   

I think the issue of contention here is the end result vs. the outward
intent, perhaps.

Basically, Digium pushes a method of Open Source development to get the
product's bugs worked out, or features added, and then gets to
incorporate all the good-faith OS development into a product which is
resold for profit, trademarked, and whose trademark is heavily defended
to the point that many people can't use the word Asterisk without
worrying about breaching that trademark.

Now, I've no qualms at all with this in the spirit of free commerce, but
the issue is that, while this may not be intended, it DOES seem to
violate the spirit of Open Source if the OS project you're working on
for the betterment of the community, is then trademarked so that you, as
a developer on the project, couldn't take the code and make it your own,
sell it, and even SAY "This is based on Asterisk."

I don't think there's any doubt that the community would benefit from a
funding source for community development. I think the argument being
made is that it's not STRICTLY community development. It's Asterisk
development, which is free to use and extend, but still has serious IP
rights associated with it that might make your average OS developer a
bit nervous or uncomfortable.

It's a bit like Google's recent call for "Ideas to Change the World."  
Basically, they called for inventors, idea people, and all others to
come up with ten projects that would help change the world... which
would then become the property and sole ownership of Google, Inc. in
their quest for business profits (and world domination ;) ). It's one
thing to espouse altruism. It's another to use the good will of others
for purely self-motivated goals.

I see this current idea, however, as a win win situation. Digium gets
bugs fixed and features added for future releases that they can sell,
people who need bugs fixed and features added get what they want, and
developers get paid for it. I think it's a great idea. I'm just not sure
I'd call it any longer an Open Source initiative in spirit.

That is, of course, just my opinion. Feel free to accept it for what
opinions are often worth....

N.