Re: Gauntlet: source code anyone ?

["Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr () nfr net>]

Fred Avolio writes:
> I suspect at least 3 commercially available firewalls of originally
> (version 1) being based on DEC SEAL code or FWTK code, both of which were
> delivered with source code. It was never worth the effort and risk to do
> anything about that...

        Yeah, I think that's one of the other factors that makes
me a (mildly) frustrated with the Industry. On one hand, we have
the "Open Source(tm)" software communists, who believe that
there should be no software industry, and on the other hand
there are commercial concerns. I've tried to walk a line between
the two and (from a financial standpoint) it hasn't worked very
well. As you say, we could probably both name 10-15 multimillionaires
whose ideas were lifted in whole cloth from my work. I guess that
gives me a warm feeling but it'd have been kind of cool if one
of them had bought me a Ferrari or something just to say "thanks
for sharing your ideas, pal."

        People bemoan the fact that vendors are reluctant to talk
about how their products work. Well, stop making the idea-stealers
rich and then maybe there will be more openness (I doubt it). At
NFR we make our technology public because I (used to) think it
is a good idea. Our competitors, all told, have downloaded our
code about 200 times in the last year. Was it fascistic of us
to finally change our license to ask them to cease? On one hand,
we have that, and on the other hand we have "Open Source(tm)"*
software communists busting our chops because we're not willing
to just put ourselves completely out of business by spending
millions of dollars to produce something we give away.

mjr.

(* BTW, I will continue to use the expression "open source" in
its original meaning, from back before it became a politically
correct buzzword. By which I mean: you can have the source to
our product, but we retain the right to make money off our
product and hope, in fact, that people like our product and
source enough to buy it so we can stay in business. It's very
frustrating when a piece of common terminology is adopted as
a term of battle by what is, essentially, a fad led by a vocal
minority. I want nothing to do with the "Open Source(tm)" mindset,
or fools who think Microsoft is impressed by Obi-Wan Kenobi
costumes.)
--
Marcus J. Ranum, CEO, Network Flight Recorder, Inc.
work - http://www.nfr.net
home - http://www.clark.net/pub/mjr