FAQ 2015

(FAQ has more content, but needs serious cleanup.)

Q: What is OSE's position on the Peer Production License (PPL)?

A: February 18, 2015. Philosophically, OSE doesn’t agree with PPL allowing companies paying so they do not have to share. This is not consistent with creating a culture of open collaboration and sharing, as indended in open source licenses. Practically, the PPL terms appear to have unclear distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ users. We agree with the general critique presented by http://blog.runtux.com/2014/05/28/242/. Our own comments on non-commercial licenses are here – Why_OSE_Doesn't_Use_Non-Commercial_Licenses.

It is not clear from the wording of the license whether commercial use is allowed by 'bad' users by paying a fee. However - if companies could pay a fee to use content - and if ‘appropriation for the anti-commons capitalist economy’ is the issue that the license aims to address, having corporations buy themselves out of sharing does not address such appropriation. In fact, allowing corporations to buy themselves out of being good citizens can promote such defection - and enclosure of new developments which would otherwise remain open. If the companies are required to follow an open, viral license – they cannot appropriate open technology – without sharing derivatives. We want to encourage collaboration – not defection. Further, OSE's case for open source is based on the efficiency advantage of open source. We feel that anything short of open collaboration is a compromise of the principles developed in the original open source definition, and we are acting accordingly. Our route in practice is Extreme Production, not protected consortia.