AMIOPEN: Linux, free software and its industry. (Was: Loki Software seems to have filed for bankruptcy.)

[zscoundrel]

That is one of the largest misconceptions about the open source license 
concept - one fostered by certain old-school software firms, I suspect.  
If you spend 3 years writing a new software application for any software 
platform, you can release it under any software license that fits your 
needs.  You wrote it, it's yours.

The only time you are obligated to release your code to open source is 
when you use existing open source code base or you make improvements or 
modifications to the OS software.  Since you are just building on the 
work of others, or are using existing open source software as a base, 
you are obligated to release those changes or improvements to the 
community.  (After all, fair is fair.)

The idea that you can't benefit from the effort you put into coding your 
applications just doesn't hold water.

Robert Kennedy wrote:

>> 
>> However, I do not like the idea of everything to be
>> free. I have a project I
>> work on for over 3 years now. The least thing I
>> could want is to publish it for
>> free once finished...
>