Category: Uncategorized
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What about skipping the “open source” part in commercial open source?
GitButler, a budding better git client, just announced that it is making its source code available under the Functional Source License (FSL), a source-available/non-compete license. In a tweet, GitButler states that this is open-source software. Previous attempts at calling competition-curbing licenses open source licenses failed, and I expect it won’t be different here. What’s new…
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Conference talk and magazine article for the Open Logistics Foundation
In May 2023, I gave a talk about user-led open source consortia at the Open Logistics Foundation’s (OLF) open source innovation day. In a user-led open source consortium, software users come together to develop or sponsor the development of the software they need to run their business as open-source software. The OLF is an excellent…
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Incentivizing German Universities to Capitalize on Their Intellectual Property
In a recent position paper, SPRIN-D, an innovation agency of the German government, proposed that universities license their intellectual property (IP) to university startups in return for virtual shares. This approach is suggested as a practice to work around universities who stall startup licensing deals due to unrealistic assumptions (e.g. lump-sum upfront payment). The problem…
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Who to blame for the log4j vulnerability?
So far, nobody. Not the open source developers, who responded fast and professionally, and not the companies who handled the risk within a day or two. Eventually, however, we will have to blame (or complain) about those companies who got cracked because they did not remove the vulnerability in time. Now, why would a company…