Re:Commons Clause
by kemitchell on Wednesday August 22, 2018 @07:56PM
(#17823328)
We invoke "open source" in many more ways and places than dry terms like "express patent license" and "copyleft license". The latter have near-zero community, marketing, or ideological meaning. They aren't the names of movements to identify with.
The push and pull between what doing open source is and what open source is supposed to mean has always gone two ways. If the status quo serves your needs, it's natural to cast "open source" as a rigorously bounded definitional category in the vein of "copyleft", and to downplay its social aspects. From a frustrated developer's point of view, it's natural to cast "open source" as a community first and foremost, and elide theory.
One point of view says, "We have this great definition to reference and rely upon, and you're trying to skim value and prestige off it." The other says, "We have all these people to celebrate and work with, and you're trying to claim their support while ignoring their needs."
Two extremes.
HESSLA and Fair Source both clearly state they are not open source, so I don't see how they go against rectang's point; the problem is not the existence of different models, but muddling the language to conflate them with the preceding one. That's essentially an EEE attack, and it's no wonder that existing OSS developers refuse to participate in it.