The Internet created many new business models which would not have been possible or conceivable without it. Global businesses such as Amazon and eBay depend on the robust, distributed, standards based technical architecture that allows them to sell goods and services 24/7, globally.
But few would have predicted that one of the most exciting entrepreneurial business models to emerge from the Internet era would be the creation of intellectual property and its distribution for personal or commercial use, free of charge.And yet that is precisely what has emerged from the initial ideas of the Free Software Foundation, which was founded by Richard Stallman, a computer scientist working in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT).
In 1983, Stallman announced on an Internet Usenet group, that he was going to build a version of Unix (the most widely used operating system for computers), and:
"give it away free to everyone who can use it."
Stallman's original licensing framework was based on the Copyleft licensing agreement, which is a general method for making a program or other work free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well. Copyleft does not preclude making money from free software. The need to be able to derive revenue from enhancements and modifications to, and support of Copyleft software is one of its underpinning principles. Copyleft has been adapted and modified over time to meet the needs of differing groups of collaborative authors of software, all of whom subscribe to the general Copyleft principles.
Stallman's posting was the genesis for a global software development model based on Copyleft principles that is now know as Open Source. There are few major corporations that don't rely it.
Open Source changes the business model from one where revenue is derived by software vendors from an annual license for the use of intellectual property to one where revenue is derived from services. That's great news for customers because all vendors will have to deliver service excellence in order to retain business from their customers.
Open Source is proving to be dynamic, secure, robust and performant It's here today, it's changing things, and it's here to stay.
