Player Object in HTML 5?

[Richard Gaskin]

Monte Goulding wrote:
 > Did you expect to be able to deploy commercial HTML5 apps with
 > community?

It's a minor point but perhaps worth offering a reminder that the 
distinction isn't about commercial, but about *proprietary*.

The GPL doesn't in any way restrict commercial activities with software. 
Its requirements focus on sharing source code.

For those who derive revenue solely from per-user licenses this 
distinction may not be all that important, since of course if the source 
is freely available everyone is one Standalone Builder moment away from 
having the finished app.

But over the last decade many business models have evolved with revenue 
streams beyond per-use licenses for software.  SaaS, PaaS, and other 
service-oriented models are increasingly popular, and indeed many of the 
tech industry's hottest startups are based around open source technology.

It's been estimated that as much as 90% of software is written "for use 
rather than for sale", and for those projects sharing the source means 
additional features, maintenance, and support from the community at no 
cost to the originator, so the software grows to accommodate an 
ever-large variety of use cases for a win-win for all.

Even though my proprietary LC licenses are prepaid many years in 
advance, right now the majority of projects I'm working on are for 
in-house workgroup support tools where the GPL-governed version would 
work equally well.   In fact, once they get mature enough portions of 
those projects may be released under GPL for the reasons I've noted 
above, to get more eyeballs on the code and new enhancements beyond my 
own limited current needs.

That said, even when using open source software I often contribute back 
to the core team.  It's in the interest of my business, my clients' 
businesses, and our end-users to make sure the stewards of the 
technologies we rely on are well taken care of.

I contribute to the Ubuntu project and others, and maintain an 
individual membership with the Linux Foundation for these reasons.  I 
have no obligation to do so, but there's nothing altruistic in my 
support, rather it's purely selfish: I recognize that the value I derive 
from these projects is more than strong enough to warrant supporting 
them to make sure they keep doing the great work they've been doing.

By the same token, in addition to my prepaid LC licenses for the 
proprietary edition I also devote time contributing to the project in 
support of the GPL-governed Community Edition.

Whether through cash, code, or evangelism, all useful open source 
projects can benefit from community contributions.

But none of that is an obligation, nor inhibits even substantial 
commercial activity, provide I adhere to the terms of the license I'm 
using: deploying proprietary apps only with a proprietary-licensed 
edition, and sharing code when made with the sharing-focused 
GPL-governed edition.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com