Forum OpenACS Q&A: more on the dilemma of competition in development of ACS

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3: more on the dilemma of competition in development of ACS (response to 1)
Posted by Torben Brosten on 08/12/01 03:55 AM
Thanks Don.

As a now self-exiled ARSdigita homestudy student (according to OpenACS recommendations for openACS developers  to not download new versions of ARSdigita's ACS ( https://openacs.org/about/licensing/adpl ), I want to reduce internal turmoil.  [Aren't most battles we fight within ourselves? ie. see the movie Fight Club.]  Let me first state that I have no quarrels with ARSdigita as a community and business entity.  I want to secure interest (legal right) to develop intellectual property for the benefit of society under the GPL without obstruction from legal positioning and protectionism. I believe the current ARSdigita license creates a potential paradox based on farming the goodwill of OpenACS developers.  Legal contracts have implications, and after investing thousands of hours of work, I don't want to publish a variation and loose the right to use it.

What happens when OpenACS developers create code that ARSdigita modifies and subsequently patents? [assuming OpenACS developers won't patent code in general.] Will OpenACS developers be subject to withdrawing modules and scrapping work?  There are many cases in patent law where ideas are "stolen" [again, *no* idea is original], and inventors are subject to protectionist actions by others.

I am not a natural programmer (but program). I have little experience with CVS, but have written thousands of lines of code. Therefore, I would expect development of the modules to be slow at first.  Whereas, I'd expect ARSdigita's development process to be fast.

The modules (to be posted) are not original ideas in the greater scheme of things  --few ideas are really original. Complete applications exist on other platforms. So, I'm not concerned about existing or future patent infringements from other sources. The application is different enough (due in part to the platform and the method) to be unique (for the moment).  Internet standards suggest that the modules will inevitably be created, whether or not I participate.

Why worry about OpenACS' relationship with ARSdigita? Perhaps I'm paranoid, but I find OpenACS' relationship with ARSdigita increasingly ambiguous and precarious.  The OpenACS platform is based on ACS, the resulting similarity in code combined with their rapid development would likely leave any original developer in a legal bind if ARSdigita decides to enforce its contract.  ARSdigita would have to enforce its contract or risk losing legal powers of the contract.

On behalf of OpenACS developers, I would like to see ARSdigita's contract include some kind of stipulation that reduces liability etc (and perhaps takes a more cooperative role such as shared ownership on components shared with OpenACS--ie in dispute of ownership).

I would address this directly with ARSdigita, but I don't represent OpenACS or ARSdigita. And in any case, I'm surely not credible in the eyes of ARSdigita's lawyers (and perhaps anyone else for that matter). Hopefully, these comments stand on their own.