Is Open Source Hindering the Development of Commercial Software?

To me, OSS has nothing to hinder. I believe that the success or failure of software has nothing to do with the licensing it is introduced with.

There are many facets to the Sony BMG Rootkit situation that are worth pondering, but I have to admit that I’ve been intrigued by one particular facet of the recent fracas: Sony’s apparent use of open source application code in its digital rights management “worm”. As far as I can glean, part of the Sony Rootkit code comes from Mike Cheng’s Open Source project LAME, which is a “GPL’d” MP3 encoder. (GPL used to be “GNU Public License” but now means “General Public License”, as explained at Wikipedia)

Sony’s partner that built the rootkit is clearly in the wrong and violated the GPL license agreement under which LAME is released to the general public. That’s been implied in various articles (for example, Did Sony Rootkit Pluck from Open Source) but no-one that I’ve seen has come out and said that Sony was wrong, that its violated the license, and that Sony needs to make amends of some sort. [Read the rest]

[tags]open source,lame,sony bmg rootkit[/tags]