More Companies Abusing the Whole Idea of Open Source

Toby Wolpe | ZD Net | May 30, 2013

Open-source advocate Michael 'Monty' Widenius, main author of the MySQL database, says changes in the movement over the past few years are threatening the viability of projects.

"Now the problem is that you have companies that are heavily using open source but refuse to pay anything back because they don't have to," Widenius said.

"The more people are using it and, in these cases, abusing the whole idea of open source by not paying back either with development or money to help projects, it is actually destroying open source."

Widenius said open-source projects must have developers working on them full time to stand a chance of success.

Widenius' answer to the problem is a form of licensing that he terms 'business source'. He believes it will enable open-source projects to generate as much income as their closed-source counterparts but still remain open.