Linux Voice News Analysis
Linux Voice News Analysis
Open source is for you, yes, but it's also for unknown others.
Opinion
Unknown Others
Being close to an open source project, it's easy to imagine that everyone sees the project the way you and your fellow community members do. This especially applies to the corporate sponsors of a single-company project; anticipating use by competitors, they often want to apply controls to who can use the code.
A core objective of software freedom is to ensure that the code can be used not only by your collaborators, but by unknown others with undisclosed goals. All OSI-approved licenses ensure everyone is permitted to use software for any purpose without further permission, delivering this core objective.
Random code liberation leading to unexpected application (aka "innovation") has always been and will remain a hallmark of open source. Borrowing portions of great code – from elegantly executed algorithms to useful libraries to entire components – is an intended mode of exercise for software freedom and not an artifact. Leaving it available is essential.
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