There's no denying that open source has revolutionized the world of software. The successes of Apache, FreeBSD, Linux, Perl, and the other open source packages on which we depend are a testament to that. But as to whether open source has managed to revolutionize the business of software—well, that's another matter.
Once the darlings of investors looking to cash in on open source software, companies like Red Hat and VA Software have declined steadily in value since the days of their high-flying IPOs. Other open source ventures have closed their doors for good or switched their focus to different markets. Today, the question that's increasingly on investors' minds is not how to capitalize on open source, but whether there's a way to profit from it at all.
That's not to say there's no money to be made from free software. MySQL AB, the company behind the market leader in open-source databases, has built a strong business by offering its software with a hybrid open-source/commercial license. "To us, the dual licensing model is simply fantastic," says CEO Marten Mickos. "We develop our product with our own salaried personnel, but we are also open to contributions from third parties. When that happens, we ask them to assign copyright of that piece of code to us, so that we can assume full responsibility for it. As we own the copyright, we also have the right to license the product under any license we wish. A majority of our revenue is from commercial licenses, and it is a key reason why our business is able to produce profits."
Mickos stops short of claiming his company's model is right for everyone. "If the product is too niche-oriented, then it doesn't help to make it open source, because nobody will use or improve it anyhow," he says. In all cases, Mickos advises businesses to examine their needs carefully. "If [the software] needs to generate its own revenue, then they can use dual licensing like we do." But if the purpose of the software is to stimulate other sales, he says, selling services around the product may be sufficient.
Either way, Mickos remains optimistic about the promise of open source business models. To companies thinking of opening their own source code, his advice is succinct: "Do it!"
—Neil McAllister
Presumed Guilty
It's no secret that the music industry is gunning for copyright violators. Suing individuals remains a possibility, but given the Yankee Group's estimate that 43 percent of those with Internet access in the U.S. have downloaded music, the potential legal bill exceeds even the theoretical billions lost to copyright scofflaws.
So the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is suing Verizon Internet Services to obtain information about an alleged file trader—without anteing up for a so-called John Doe lawsuit, which is how unknown individuals are usually targeted.
As Verizon vice president and associate general counsel Sarah Deutsch explains, "The RIAA has clearly made a decision that they want to bring a massive legal campaign against the user community. And before launching their lawsuit, what they've tried to do is use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as a way of gathering up great numbers of subscribers' identities so they could, first of all, figure out who the most unsympathetic defendants would be for their lawsuit. And then, second, have all these names so they could send users hundreds of thousands of cease-and-desist letters at the same time they launch their legal action."
David McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association, claims the RIAA is trying to skirt the legal requirements of the DMCA—such as presenting actual evidence of infringement—and to deprive people of due process. "What they want is the ability to send bots out to scoop up ten thousand names and simply fire off notes to ISPs to cut off people's access," he says. "And that's what we're fighting."
If the RIAA is successful, "the implications are pretty gargantuan," warns attorney Megan E. Gray, coauthor of an amicus brief filed on behalf of a handful of privacy and consumer groups in support of Verizon. "It means that anyone purporting to be a copyright holder can subpoena an ISP and learn the identity of anyone who is trading or posting content that supposedly infringes the copyright holder's copyright."
The RIAA did not respond to repeated requests for comment. McClure believes that the RIAA got in over its head. "It's a very curious case," he says, "because I think the RIAA overstepped itself. I think they felt that no one would take this seriously. And in point of fact, they sent similar notices to other ISPs that just complied without thinking about it. And once the ISPs thought about it they went, Whoa! We could be sued by these subscribers.'"
—Thomas Claburn
Hot Opera Pie
For computer users who lack hand-eye coordination, picking an item from a sprawling favorites list can be a little like the game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." You mouse up and down, up and down, hoping to hit the right spot.
 [click for larger image] Pie menus from The Sims are more intuitive than drop-downs. |
That's why Don Hopkins would like to see linear menus go the way of the dodo. Hopkins was among the University of Maryland researchers who developed pie menus, a technology that allows users to select a desired application or file from circular, context-sensitive menus. It's only one of a handful of new technologies—including mouse-gesturing and new gesture-recognition gadgets—aimed at changing the way people interact with their computers and PDAs.
How do pie menus work? Instead of a drop-down list, items are clustered into eight or fewer stable menus. The concept exploits Fitts' Law, which essentially states that the nearer and bigger an object is, the easier it is to hit. "It's directional," Hopkins says. "It's easy for people to think that way; it's like telling somebody how to get somewhere by turning at the next traffic light." Hopkins declined to patent the idea, and pie menus are creeping toward the mainstream; Mozilla is one of several projects that recently incorporated the idea.
Meanwhile, the Opera Web browser recently added mouse-gesture-based navigation first popularized in a game called Black & White. The function allows users to perform common actions with simple gestures; to reload a page, for example, the user need only hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse up and down.
And that may only be the beginning. Essential Reality just released the P5 Glove, which fits over your hand and allows you to "walk" through an online room and pick up objects by harnessing gesture recognition and optical tracking. Until you can reach directly into a Web page to move stuff around, this might be the best thing there is.
—David Howard
You've Got Laundry!
Appliances connected to the Internet. Yawn. You probably heard the idea a couple of years ago and scoffed at the absurdity of yet another ungainly link between the Internet and the real world. This time around, however, novelty might be spun into gold by wiring up college laundry rooms.
The idea began seven years ago in the basement of a small dorm at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the culmination of a class project. Three washers and four dryers were wired to a dorm intranet so residents could log on to check which machines were empty before lugging laundry downstairs. "From what I've heard, [the creators] were told by MIT that the idea wasn't worth patenting," says Jim Paris, an MIT senior who has maintained the dorm's system for the past four years.
Don't tell that to USA Technologies, which currently has a patent pending on e-Suds, a system based on the original MIT concept. In fact, after a trial run of e-Suds at MIT and Boston College last spring, nationwide rollout of e-Suds began in December.
Although smartcard Laundromats are already popping up on college campuses, the innovation of e-Suds is based on the ability to make micropayments by credit card, or even by billing to a cell phone, instead of front-loading a smartcard with cash value. USA Technologies already provides similar credit card micropayments through vending machines and business services kiosks.
Users sign up for the service through a company Web site, but the actual e-Suds network will be transport independent. The washers and dryers (all Maytag models, which were chosen specifically for the brand's open electronic architecture) can be retrofitted with an Ethernet hookup, a phone jack, or several wireless options including cellular, two-way paging, or even WiFi.
"We determine which way the machines will be networked by what's available in that situation," says Wendy Jenkins, VP of marketing for USA Technologies. If a university provides Ethernet, it uses Ethernet. If the laundry room is off a main pipeline, the system can go wireless.
Cedarville University, in Dayton, Ohio, will receive the first official e-Suds laundry system over the winter break this year, offering micropayments and the ability to monitor empty machines online. As the eventual forty-college, nine-thousand-machine rollout proceeds over the next two years, however, machines will be wired to call, email, or text page when a cycle is finished, and will even prompt users to add fabric softener. And of course, the machines will also call for maintenance when they are broken.
USA Technologies brought in IBM to build and host the back end. Says IBM's Jan Walbridge, "The system will allow [the maintenance companies] to gather data about the use of the machines, as well as what comes in through the Web site. Despite the simplicity of the idea, between the credit verification, billing systems, and maintenance and inventory records, there's a lot of technology under the covers."
—Kayte VanScoy
