Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eric Raymond is probably the least reliable narrator of a Free Software ethos that one could pick.
Not trying to troll you, just wanna know: why is that?
Short answer, ideological extremism.
AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
641–650 of 673 posts
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#642Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone gave you tens of thousands of dollars of valuables would you say thank you? If people gave that to you regularly would you become too bothered to say thank you? especially when your acknowledgement could help the person giving you their wealth?
In communication circles, people differentiate between requests and demands. The key differentiator: Turning down a request does not lead to anything negative. In particular, the requestor is not displeased or upset. If he/she is, then it was likely a demand disguised as a request. On the other hand, fulfilling a request can, and often will, lead to a positive. It's still a request. If you're going to be upset about…
not sure why you've been down-voted but I thought that was well explained. I do rather strongly disagree with your example as being relevant, but I think you've made a lot of good, relevant points. Your example of stimulus being a gift is incorrect. We explicitly pay into social programs as a society with full expectation that those funds will be used to help us. Stimulus isn't a gift.
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#643I'm increasingly sympathetic to the hardcore GPL hawks, maybe they were right all along.
At this point I think it's plausible that the only reason commercial forks haven't "embrace extend extinguish" Linux is the GPL. I'll certainly be considering the GPL if I start any open source projects, giant corporations have no morals.
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#644Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good job taking responsibility, Matt. Handling this the right way. I do think there's a larger discussion about trillion dollar companies just forking a project and announcing it as a new feature for their platform without even talking to the original creator. If there's anything to improve, "reach out first" will be a start. It's open source. You don't have to reach out. There's nothing legally or morally wrong with…
It doesn't sound exactly like taking responsibility to me. It's more an acknowledgment of the fact and damage control. Taking responsibility would suggest admitting fault and taking action to make things right. His statement doesn't have any of these. 'I am looking into it' is too vague and doesn't mean much. Probably Amazon's legal department doesn't let him say much more, but then his statement sounds unconvincing…
Fault for what? Using code in accordance with the license selected by its developer?
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#645Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it's not about the letter of the licensing, it's about the spirit If it's not in black and white then it's not part of the license. Spirit isn't defined. To paraphrase Theo de Raadt, if you're not happy for your code to be used in a puppy mulching machine then don't license it under a permissive license.
Other people are saying this, but AWS is taking a reputational risk here. If things get bad enough, we could end up with no-Amazon clauses in OSS.
So?
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#646Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP here. Matt and I are chatting about this. We will work it out. As per my tweet, it's not about the letter of the licensing, it's about the spirit.
Not quite the same behavior, but BigCo's free-riding on FOSS is nothing new. "At Serge’s trial Kevin Marino, his lawyer, flashed two pages of computer code: the original, with its open-source license on top, and a replica, with the open-source license stripped off and replaced by the Goldman Sachs license." [1] [1] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldma...
Free-riding on the free? What else are you supposed to do with it?
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#647I run the open source strategy and marketing team at AWS. As I told Tim privately and publicly ( https://twitter.com/mjasay/status/1317084448119169024 ), I hadn't been aware of this but am talking with the relevant product team to see how we can improve in his regard. AWS uses a lot of open source, and we contribute a lot, both in terms of code (first-party projects like Firecracker and Bottlerocket, but also third-p…
Surely you should be sending him a significant pay check. You're worth billions and just ripping off other peoples projects?
Why? It was knowingly and intentionally released to the world for free, to do with as anyone wishes. No one is ripping anyone off.
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#648Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course the blame is on the developers. If you don't want commercial enterprises to repackage your project and exclude you, choose a license that says that! How is this even controversial?
Because then everybody will jump at you and shout "OMG you don't allow for repackaging, don't ever dare to imply that your code is Open Source with all the permissions and liberties that your free labor should grant, so we don't have interest in your shitty proprietary stuff and will never check it out". As seen on HN multiple times. Which is what the parent refers to with the more politely put "either your fault for…
Which is why I either go commercial or hard line GPL.
Don't want to pay me? Well get payed the same way.
There are plenty of business opportunities for commercial software, it is just hard and takes effort, like everything in life.
Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service
#649I run the open source strategy and marketing team at AWS. As I told Tim privately and publicly ( https://twitter.com/mjasay/status/1317084448119169024 ), I hadn't been aware of this but am talking with the relevant product team to see how we can improve in his regard. AWS uses a lot of open source, and we contribute a lot, both in terms of code (first-party projects like Firecracker and Bottlerocket, but also third-p…
It doesn't matter, anyone who uses AWS services beyond those that are easily replaced by alternatives (say DigitalOcean, OpenStack, Azure, etc.) is setting themselves up for failure. At the very least they'll need a translation dictionary of Amazon's stupid naming scheme when they want to move.
The long tail of AWS services is a massive waste of time.