The Trouble With “Open Source”

Two popular axioms we like to live by are polar opposites:  “The best things in life are free” and its antithesis, “Nothing of real value is ever free.”

When it comes to the Internet, the first statement has become the corporate mantra of many businesses promoting their products and services on the web.  After all, this is the essence of the Internet:  the freedom to communicate and exchanges ideas without the censure of traditional rules and red tape.  By embracing a structure (or lack of structure depending on your perspective) where input from all sources is welcome, the Internet has become the incubator of new ideas, a frontier of unencumbered brainstorms where new technologies are born, bred and released into the wild, wild web to improve the quality of our online experience.

As a long time advocate of this view of the Internet, it is uncomfortable for me to weigh in on more structure and control.  But as “Open Source” becomes the model for new program development on the web, it is important to look at both the pros and cons.  True, the open source software movement was fresh and revolutionary when it began in 1983.  The idea of programmers everywhere opening up their source code for public view and improvement is an incredible concept.  GNU software, often referred to as a General Public License (GPL), gives programmers broad rights to sell, copy and modify their programs as long as they make the source code for their programming available to other programs and extend them the same rights.  Today, open source programs like Apache, Mozilla, Joomla!, Frog CMS,  PHP-Nuke, Xaraya, Silver Stripe, and Mambo are now in wide use and improving the Internet experience for all of us.

With all this openness and freedom also comes great risk, especially for businesses who are investing dollars building their web presence on an “open source” platform.  Here are a few of the risks to consider:

1. Intellectual Property Infringement.  When you choose to use an open source program instead of a traditionally licensed program (that’s one where you actually purchase the rights to use and modify the program), a business opens itself to the potential for intellectual property infringement.  The open source program is being developed by a diverse team of programmers of varying levels of skill set, expertise and work ethic. The opportunity for a programmer with less than stellar work ethic to introduce copyrighted code into the program is very real.  As a licensee of the open source program containing the copyrighted code, a business could be pulled into the legal fray that ensues.

2. Quality Assurance.  Most open source licenses simply do not contain the kind of quality assurances and warranties that have become the hallmark of most quality, traditionally licensed software products. Weekend coders and after hours software hobbyists tend to drive down the overall quality of many open source programs. In many instances, best practices, quality control and debugging are minimal or non existent.

3. If it’s open source, it open to your competitors.  That means the same program you use to develop your corporate website, can be used by your competitors free of charge.  More importantly, your competitors get the benefit of everything your programming team has accomplished since they are required to share their source code.   Open source is probably not the best way to stay ahead of your competition.

What’s the take away here? Simply a re-emphasis on two other age old axioms :  “Let the buyer beware” and “You get what you pay for.”