Dear Peerio: huh?
Posted on June 25, 2004
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 267 views |
Some app called Peerio, which I can only guess is a p2p app, I didn’t bother to read much past the section of homepage I quote below, has the weirdest open-source approach I’ve ever seen:
We’ve gone against the tide of tradition by taking an Open Source approach…. We will provide the Peerio444™ source codes to developers worldwide because you are our peers and Peerio444™ can not evolve without participation. Diversity is a key principal of the Open Project.
…
Despite our efforts, there are two necessary exceptions to the open source principle:1) The source codes for the Peerio444™ core will not be released.
2) Peerio444™ will not function in embedded systems and is limited to standard PC use (x86 and PowerPC).Why is that?
The source codes for the Peerio444™ core will be kept proprietary so that we can avoid spawning hundreds of proprietary commercial systems (see Linux) that could jeopardize our ability to maintain a Forever Free platform. To be Forever Free we must protect the system from profiteers. Support and maintenance of the Peerio 444™ core will be limited to our research and development team.
Now I’m not always the brightest bulb on the tree but it seems to me that those two paragraphs are directly contradictory: we’re open and we’ll provide you with the source code, we just won’t let you have it.
To paraphrase Indigo Montoya: “I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.”