These are follow-up questions to the one I posed to the open source community for my proposed article in Internet.com's Boardwatch magazine on a royalty system to pay developers in open source. I'd like to get community feedback on these, too. I write an Internet Business Law monthly column for Boardwatch <www.boardwatch.com> and I'm writing a series on open source. [If you are searching my past articles, please note that the bio page has a problem and only lists 6 of my 13 articles, the rest are in the search results themselves]. The responses to the first question came in from all over the world and prompted these follow-up questions. Thank you again to everyone who responded to the first. The responses were interesting, enlightening, enthusiastic, highly intelligent and ..... overwhelming in number-- though I read and appreciated each one. I've enjoyed this project more than any other, mainly because of the tremendous feedback. The open source revolution has a passion not seen in the world since the storming of the Bastille. It also has the best and brightest people worldwide in it, I think.
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QUESTIONS
Am I the only person who thinks that developers should be paid a royalty based on the number of accepted lines each developer contributes to a program that's shipped and sold? Of all the responses I got on the first question, only 2 discussed "how" any royalty system could be done and they both concluded that it couldn't. Isn't a royalty system that compensates on the basis of the monatary success of a program better than being paid a fixed salary or not paid at all?
As President Clinton recently said, "don t make the perfect the enemy of the good." Even though a perfect royalty system may be impossible, one that imperfectly pays developers is still a very good thing, I think, as long as it keeps the core values of open source. More money to open source developers only means more developers for the movement. Who would work for proprietary software if they could get paid in open source? Open source is a superior development model, after all, that empowers all developers, because it allows them the freedom to see, copy and modify the code. Peer review both helps the experienced developers and mentors the new ones coming along.
Also, aren't open applications better than closed proprietary applications? So why does open source tolerate anything closed?
Will money ruin the open source movement? People originally also said that money would ruin the Internet. Has it? Why is open source different?
How will open source fight the inevitable software company backlash? Does anyone really think that software companies will go quietly into the night? Survival is the most natural instinct and corporate law actually requires management to do what is best for the shareholders. Does anyone remember Halloween I? Do you really think that Microsoft (after the trial, of course) will not use copyright and patents against open source? How does open source wage such a battle without a revenue model to help finance the war?
My leanings are:
1. Developers ought to be paid. Software is the most important product in the world today. Developers are a new nobility based on brains. This is the first chance the world has had to have a real worldwide meritocracy. This is especially important for people in the developing world, who could earn a place in the world economy by producing software for which they are paid equally to everyone else. 2. Only large and medium corporations and all governments should pay for buying open source software. Small business, students and consumers should not be charged. [This is not a sine qua non, but only my egalitarian bias.] 3. ALL software should be open, including all applications. 4. The most efficient royalty system is based on the lines of code produced by each developer as a percentage of the total lines in a final version that's shipped and sold. 5. Property rights are fundamentally important. Getting them wrong caused the Russian people to lose 3 generations. Capitalism works best at least until we get to the point where no one has to work anymore, even if it is not perfect. 6. Software companies are dinosaurs and will be replaced by open source development because the power is in the developers (at the base of the pyramid) not in the companies (with the few at the top). This is different from traditional industrial companies that own the necessary capital assets to produce the joint product, so those companies have the power in those situations. With traditional industrial companies if people want to work, they needed access to the capital assets to do their job. This is why third world countries have to wait for industrial companies to invest before their citizens can work. This is the fundamental power shift between the old economy and the new economy. In the new economy, there are very limited capital assets involved for people to do their jobs, so people don't need companies anymore. They can perform their jobs without the corporate eggshell. This is what open source has shown the world. It's quite impressive actually, if you think about it. Corporations have organized major human activity for a couple of hundred years now. The Internet and open source prove this is no longer necessary, that people over the Internet can organize themselves.
Please read the two responses below that I received on the "how" issue. Can anyone give me any good reasons why in the first John shouldn't get 3/5 and Dave 2/5 of the selling price of the MP3 player (before you include Bob s recorder code)? Forget about the interim bloatware since it gets eliminated.
Only the code in the shipped version counts. Competition to get accepted into a shipped version will create a feedback loop that will eliminate the bloatware in the end so only the best, cleanest, leanest code is included and priced. Developers as a group would decide what is the best code for each program as they do now in open source, since only they are the experts (again the expertise is at the base of the pyramid, not the top. Remember Gates almost missed the Internet). The process for inclusion should be democratic, not monarchic where one person can be a dictator (nor oligarchic as with proprietary software's current many dictators). Every developer should equally have a vote on anything he/she is interested in voting on.
In the second, what s wrong with the first guy getting 10000/10005 of the combined market and the other guy getting 5/10005, since it is assumed that the 10000 lines is the guts of the program and the 5 is only a clever porting?
Maybe there can be some other objectively determinable criteria added as a refinement at some point. But don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. Lines of code is an easy, objectively determinable, and viable model right now. It will get the developers some money for themselves and for the movement.
By the way, ever calculate what a line of code is worth? Based on the market cap of Microsoft it may be thousands of dollars. Yes, thousands for each line. One calculation puts it at $9,000 per line, but that may be overly optimistic. Do some calculations yourself. You'll be amazed. Just because it s fun and easy for developers to produce it, doesn't mean software has no value. On the flip side, proprietary software has shown that just because it has value doesn't mean that developers will get much of it. Something in the middle is clearly needed in my opinion.
Just my thoughts, though. Dissension is a whetstone that sharpens all our minds.
Thanks and best regards,
Tony Stanco
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Subj: RE:Open Source Article Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 1:17:13 PM Eastern Standard Time From: "R.A.Fletcher" PMA99RAF@sheffield.ac.uk To: tonstanco@aol.com
Question: Why cant open source software be sold? Answer: In a sense it can, but its not those who wrote the software who sell it. RedHat sell it, SuSE sell it. They make money from it. The authors don't recieve any. Since I'm a mathematician I'll proove the idea that each author gets a percentage of what is sold is impractical, by assuming that it isn't......
A man writes a program. Lets call him John. John write 10 000 lines of code for a program. To be topical, it can be an MP3 player, to play audio files. By defenition the source to his software is available for changing as anyone sees fit, if it is open source. Dave, an MP3 specialist, likes Johns program, but finds bugs in it. And being a clever programmer with a kind heart fixes them. Suddenly 10000 lines of code has become 5000 and the functionality of the program has improved. Say 2000 lines of code of this final 5000 is Dave's own work. Does that mean he should get a two-fifths share? Who would work it out. John doesn't know Dave, so they might not be able to agree a percentage. Before you know it Bob has added a CDRecording facility.
Obviously it would take some disscusions to sort out percenttages, and then your assuming that someone wants to buy it The aim of each author getting ther just deserves is obviously impractical. Bob says his cd recording feature is what makes the product stand out. Dave says that's true but since Bob used his work, which fixed a lot of bugs, he wouldn't have been able to implement it. John says this too is true, but it was originally his program Whereupon the have a fight.
Open source means software has to be free in order for it to be practicle.
Assume that John puts a restriction on his work stating that any work done upon his code must not be released, except to him. Then Dave probably wouldn't have bothered in the first place. And Bob's groundbreaking CD record feature never comes to light, or at least it takes longer.
I think that makes it clear why open source is the way it is. It brings about rapid development, small efficient code, and benefits users by being easily adapted if slightly unsuitable. Take for instance if a program decides to send as much info about you to an organisation. It wouldn't happen under the open source model.
I get the idea that you feel there should be reward for those who spend their time doing these things for free. But they are usually hobbyists, the system is working and needn't be fixed.
Yours
_oOO-Richard Fletcher-OOo_
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Subj: Re: open source article Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 11:05:11 AM Eastern Standard Time From: Izar Tarandach izar@linuxqa.com To: TonStanco@aol.com
If based on a royalty model, how do you quantify how much each developer gets ? For example, if I write a 10k lines system that works on 50% of the computers in the market, and someone sends in a patch with 5 lines that miraculously makes it work on the other 50% percent, what's the size of the pie that each one of us is taking ?
--izar
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Disclaimer:
These are my personal, private opinions. The Securities and Exchange Commission, where I work as a securities attorney, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any private publication or statement by any of its employees. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or of the author's colleagues upon the staff of the Commission.
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