[consulting] Is this list dead?

[Bill Fitzgerald]

Michael Haggerty wrote:
> Interesting perspective. 
>
> While I differ on the effect of market forces on development (from the
> standpoint that truly innovative products are very difficult to 'clone'), 
I would disagree -- cloning existing products/services is pretty easy. 
The relationship between idea and code is a tenuous one, and an I have 
found that an innovative product usually comes with an innovative take 
on the market where that product fits -- and that is very difficult to 
clone.
> I
> agree that entering a market by building it yourself is not a terribly high
> hurdle. And yes, he's planning to release this as a hosted service, so there
> are not GPL issues to worry about.
>
> For the sake of argument, would you consider a theme to be a module under
> this interpretation of the GPL? If not, why?
>   
We don't consider themes to be modules under the GPL because the graphic 
look and feel are part of a client's identity/brand identity. The way 
Drupal separates functionality from output makes this an even easier 
split. Our developer agreement deals with themes differently from code; 
all code is GPL, where themes are not.

Cheers,

Bill
>>
>> If it's a hosted service, he can do whatever he wants.
>>
>> If the modules are open source, but require an upstream service to
>> connect to in order to function, that's another way to protect a
>> business model (but someone could still reverse engineer the upstream
>> service and build that).
>>
>> Getting into the market by having to build something yourself is not
>> particularly difficult. All software, especially when visible to
>> interact with, can likely be cloned pretty easily. It's all just time
>> and money and if the market is attractive enough...it will happen.
>>
>> --
>> Boris Mann
>> Skype borismann
>> http://www.bryght.com
>>     
>
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-- 
Bill Fitzgerald
http://www.funnymonkey.com
Tools for Teachers
503.897.7160