...Because some things should not be said out in public

Nokia can almost be understood. It is struggling to hop from one strand of technology (proprietary software) onto another while obeying and meetings the demands of investors and partners in the media industry, for example. But what Ari Jaaksi did the other day (revealing this dilemma) was rather tactless and in a new blog post he explains just what he meant.

Companies like Nokia need to learn the open source way of working. This means not only fulfilling the letter of GPL, LGPL etc. but also the spirit. In my mind this means integrating the corporate work with the open source community, participating, contributing back the code, building the code in open projects and not only releasing it when mandatory, not forking, etc.

Ryan Paul weighs in on this as well and defends, where possible, what Nokia does.

Another point that is missing from this debate is the part that is played by end users. Regardless of how Nokia and open source software developers view restrictive business practices, it is pressure from the consumer that will eventually make such practices untenable. Regular users are increasingly fighting back as they become aware of the hidden costs built into locks and DRM. These mechanisms are easily circumventable, and they cease to stay relevant when they are repeatedly cracked.

Nokia was seen defending DRM in the past, so there will always be doubt and skepticism. In fact, see some of the reactions to this latest incident. One the more direct responses comes from Balzac:

Oh please, educate me, Nokia.

Nokia: “We want to educate open-source developers."

Oh please, educate me, Nokia. Actually, never-mind. Kiss my ass instead. BTW, I call it free software, not "open source".

Nokia: "There are certain business rules [developers] need to obey, such as DRM, IPR [intellectual property rights], SIM locks and subsidised business models.”

You think I need obey? I prefer civil disobedience. DRM? Why would I obey your plan to steal my freedom? "Intellectual property"? What's that? There is Copyright law and Patent law but to my knowledge, there is no "intellectual property" law.

It's a good idea to Boycott Nokia. They have an exceedingly imperious and arrogant attitude. Didn't they just buy Trolltech? Whichever pinhead from Nokia wrote this garbage just did a disservice to Trolltech. It makes Trolltech look like obedient "open source" developers who are in the process of being re-educated by Nokia.

This was posted in response to this gripe.

You better start playing by the rules because else the other companies might do it faster than Nokia and you will lose the opportunity. Oh: And just as a remind: when you go open source, you *must* play by the rules by honoring the license of the software.

Really, it’s sad to listen to things like this from someone controlling the company who owns Trolltech I am sure that the vice-president of companies like Red Hat wouldn’t say nonsense like the above. But it’s no surprise coming from someone in a company that seems to be absolutely in favor of software patents in Europe according to FFII.

Assuming we study the progression of intellectual monopolies and also the subversion by corporations like Novell, Nokia is a large player worth keeping an eye on. It's discussed in the IRC channel at the moment. ⬆