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Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times)
The Financial Times has posted a
response to the "why open source is unsustainable" column.
"Global businesses such as IBM have very good lawyers. They are not
known for investing billions of dollars into businesses built on licences
that are simultaneously vague and imperialistic. (I imagine an
absent-minded Genghis Khan.) Unenforceable licences are also unpopular. In
his scholarship, Prof Epstein has pointed out eloquently that the market is
the best information processing system we have: we should assume that it is
incorporating all available information. If we apply his principle here, it
indicates that the market has weighed his fears and found them
wanting."
(Log in to post comments)
Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times) Posted Nov 3, 2004 18:22 UTC (Wed) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link] One point this (very good) piece fails to mention at the end: government purchasing is inherently political and involves multiple agendae. A government needs to consider not only how good the software they get for their money is, but what happens to that money when it leaves the government. If it goes to companies who pay taxes locally and employ constituents, the money tends to come back to the government, and the government also creates jobs among constituents and improves the local economy, which is generally considered a good thing for governments to do. Even if it is not buying directly from a local company, a government may want to fund development which improves a local company's offerings, thereby allowing the company to compete with foreign businesses more effectively.
Whenever there are local companies selling open-source alternatives to foreign products, open source is a better investment, taking into account the whole system, for governments (provided, of course, that they can make it work). Of course, this only applies to governments.
Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times) Posted Nov 3, 2004 22:12 UTC (Wed) by Kmaurer (guest, #12642) [Link] Why should taking account of the flow of money into or out of a community be limited to governments?
The flow of wealth is affected by everyones' buying decisions.
Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times) Posted Nov 4, 2004 3:19 UTC (Thu) by njhurst (guest, #6022) [Link] Most people have neither the time nor resources to accurately weigh up the benefits of spending money for each transaction. If you can work out a way to help people make this choice quickly (perhaps a personal/pocket barcode reader backed with a DB) you will make a big contribution to the world.
Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times)
Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times) Posted Nov 4, 2004 19:28 UTC (Thu) by njhurst (guest, #6022) [Link] Excellent, now make it easy to carry whilst shopping, in a fancy case and market it.
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