Open source as an antitrust strategy sign in to comment. Opensource advocate enters ibm antitrust fray pcworld. Amazon has gone from neutral platform to cutthroat. This issue spans a wide range of topics in diverse practice areas. They also accused him of trying to drive a wedge between ibm and the opensource software community, and they questioned whether mueller is in a position to speak for free and open source software. The intersection of open source software, intellectual.
The most significant theme of this movie is not one that seeks to implicate major corporations in illegal activities. An analysis of copyleft and the prohibition of software license fees on the basis of art. Looking back at antitrust, the movie where bill gates. I mean gary winston was a criminal mastermind who will do anything to get ahead in business. Open source software certainly compares well on price impacts, by lowering the costs of research, development and production for vendors and providing lower costs of ownership for customers, but the more successful the software becomes, the less choice. As open source software oss platforms continue to grow in prominence, oss platforms may face potential antitrust scrutiny in particular circumstances, analogous to potential antitrust issues that have arisen in the standardsetting context. The most recent antitrust complaint was filed last month by turbohercules, a small opensource software vendor in france. It looked like another computerbased movie that would be as realistic as hackers, but with a more obvious plot. By tying use of its mainframe software to ibm hardware, turbohercules charges, ibm is preventing open source from competing. Android is an open source software platform, but its unlikely you have ever used a purely open source version of it. This is a readonly mirror of the cran r package repository.
Software developer and political lobbyist florian mueller weighed in on the european commissions investigation of monopoly abuse claims against ibm, accusing the computing giant of deserting the interests of the opensource software community. By jordan fernandes, michael perry and paul ragusa march 26, 2019, 12. Thus antitrust was born a convoluted thriller that. Opensource advocate enters ibm antitrust fray computerworld. Opensource software is having an increasingly material impact on software. It advocates open source software in an era when, to most people, gpl was just three random letters from the alphabet. The security of the open source software digital supply. It has lots of action and suspense to engage even passive viewers. For a copy of this article from law360, click the title link below opensource software raises unique antitrust questions. The antitrust analysis of rules and standards for software platforms. It turns out, not only is open source great in life, but it comes in handy in death, too. Opensource software raises unique antitrust questions. The redmond giant doesnt give away much software itself and many of its proprietary products face open source competitors.
Foss is an increasingly vital resource in nearly all industries, in the public and private sectors, among tech and. But the infrastructure of online computing is just as obviously a huge part of. Microsofts android antitrust complaint called an attack. The film is in many ways a direct response to microsofts halloween documents outlining a strategy to disrupt the open source movement. Ibm,1 which ruled that copyleft and open source licenses are not a violation of antitrust law. In this column, i will discuss open source licenses and the case of wallace v. Because some of the participants members will include competitors, these activities are subject to antitrust laws. Following an antitrust suit that forced the unbundling of ibms hardware and software, a proprietary software industry grew throughout the 1970s, in which companies sought to protect. Lee goes on to say that microsoft is the only major company that stands to benefit from the decline of open source software since it doesnt give away much software itself and many of its. Open source software has been one of the biggest success stories of the software industry.
Open source foiled microsoft antitrust case computerworld. Openstack foundation openstack was formed to involve interested companies and individuals in a collaborative effort to support a collection of open source technology that provides massively. The paradigm of freely sharing computer source codea practice known as open source traces back to the earliest commercial computers, whose user groups shared code to reduce duplicate work and costs. When competing developers with sufficient market power pressure a software developer to make a technology available as opensource, they could face antitrust liability if their coordinated conduct. Open source provides a way for industries to collaborate without running afoul of antitrust law. A software company kills for code and open source will save us all. Still, its the first majorstudio picture starring the open.
Initiated by the linux foundation as an open source project, this tool identifies source code combinations at the dynamic and static link levels and provides a license policy framework that enables foss compliance officers to define combinations of licenses and linkage methods that are to be flagged if found as a result of running the tool. Sourceforge is an open source community resource dedicated to helping open source projects be as successful as possible. It has to do with the fact that open source has become such a strong force in the software world look at linux, and its predecessor. Seven concerns open source should worry about, part 2. The sherman antitrust act was the first statute passed into united states federal law to address the issue of businesses improperly acting in concert with each other to gain unfair advantages over competitors and in regard to consumers.
It has been estimated that free and open source software foss constitutes 7090% of any given piece of modern software solutions. Most of us think we already know, but in fact, there are a number of interpretations and nuances to defining open source. The department said that, as originally proposed, the deal would jeopardize the ability of open source software, such as linux, to continue to innovate and compete in the development and distribution of server, desktop, and mobile operating systems, middleware, and virtualization products. He urged the commission, europes top antitrust regulator, to take action. The complete opensource and business software platform. Indeed, oracle itself is a major distributor of free software. Antitrust complaint against android is an attack on open source microsoft and oracle say its predatory for companies to give away software. The antitrust analysis of rules and standards for software. Antitrust contains lots of ideas that are specific to the software industry however. Opensource advocate enters ibm antitrust fray network world. This column is part one of a twopart series discussing the legality of open source software. Where opensource software is available in the market and two leading providers of proprietary software merge, leaving. The creation of free and open source software foss through social networks has been celebrated as one of the most interesting and inspiring developments of the information age.
Jt smith by grant gross in antitrust, the new movie pitting a bunch of goodlooking open source coders against a big, bad software company, the message is wellintentioned if a bit heavyhanded, but the plot requires you to suspend disbelief at several turns. I can cite dozens of examples of how microsoft is supporting one opensource project or another. Open source softwares prominence opens it up to potential antitrust scrutiny. The emerging role of opensource software in merger analysis. This is the first article in a new series that will explain the basics of open source for business advantage and how to achieve it through the discipline of professional open source management.
Mueller published a letter from ibm cto mark anzani to turbohercules president roger bowler dated march 11, warning that ibm would defend its patents if turbohercules used them without permission. While milo is sympathetic to teddys beliefs that computer technology should belong to the people and that open source software is the most promising future lies. Appendix 9 openstack antitrust compliance policy i. Opensource advocate enters ibm antitrust fray florian mueller says ibm deserted the interests of the opensource community and calls on regulators to intervene. It knows that its customers want it, and it wants to make them happy. Talk about a clean victory in response to a federal complaint charging ibm, red hat and novell with conspiring to thwart competition in the operating system market by providing linux free of charge under the gnu general public license gpl the united states. Opensource advocate enters ibm antitrust fray pc world. The charismatic tech mogul that tim robbins portrays here is so transparently modeled after. In antitrust, the new movie pitting a bunch of goodlooking open source coders against a big, bad software company, the message is wellintentioned if a bit heavyhanded, but the plot requires you to suspend disbelief at several turns. The city of bloomington, indiana uses, and promotes, open source on their website. They also accused him of trying to drive a wedge between ibm.
The main legal platform selected for facilitating this collaborative creation is the gnu general public license gpl. Visit the open source center to discover more options on using open source software with microsoft azure. Antitrust complaint against android is an attack on open. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Is open source software a violation of antitrust law purdue epubs. Legally speaking is open source software a violation of. The paradigm of freely sharing computer source codea practice known as open sourcetraces back to the earliest commercial computers, whose user groups shared code to reduce duplicate work and costs. Visit the open source center to discover more options. As the number of open source components used in software supply chains shoot up, hackers are going along for the ride. The intersection of open source software, intellectual property, and antitrust to date, there have been relatively few antitrust cases involving oss. Opensource software raises unique antitrust questions law360. It has to do with the fact that open source has become such a strong force in the software world look at linux, and its predecessor, unix, look. As open source software oss platforms continue to grow in prominence, oss platforms may face potential antitrust scrutiny in particular. Gpl and opensource have nothing to fear from antitrust laws.
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