This is really convincing to me. I really hated Tom’s latest video and I continue to think he really misses the point. This is a great counter argument.
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This is by far the most complicated subject I deal with. I have worked and earned on both sides. I like the undertone of that article. Instead of retreating to our own corners, we need to band together more than ever. That, I can agree with.
The average consumer has no idea about any of this. So the power users are bearing a heavy load.
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That was a weird video. Thomas’ video seemed to have 2 main arguments. One was that people are violating the licenses and not ‘giving back’ so therefore it’s not working, while the other was that providing stuff openly just gives competitors an advantage.
The first argument is nothing new, that has been around since the dawn of the Open Source movement itself. I remember the legal wrangling that resulted in the Linksys router firmware being open sourced and the subsequent creation of OpenWRT. There’s an epic through-line for open source router firmwares that traces all the way back to that one very specific and memorable GPL violation, so yeah, nothing new there.
The other aspect is the ‘helping the competitors’ standpoint. While there’s definitely an argument to be made that short-term gains are possible by locking things down with patents, there’s equal argument that, with proper handling, the lack of those patents benefits everyone equally. I think the issue is that the success of open-source software is visible by seeing specific releases of software in order to comply with license terms. The success of open-source hardware is much more of a case of not being able to ‘prove a negative’… Simply put, the lack of patents in the space is where the proof is there.
But yeah, it’s a bit weird. I guess I see the edges of what he’s going on about, but it sounds like an argument that everything isn’t working out perfectly so let’s not bother. Seems a bit pointlessly fatalistic, to me.
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I found the article compelling.
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My goodness, yes it was beyond weird.
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Maybe this exists already, but the needs to be some kind of union or advocacy group for the Open Source community. Generally some place to pool money into a legal fund to go after companies that misuse and exploit Open Source licenses. If there’s no financial consequences to keep companies from stealing then why would they stop?
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His old stuff was a good resource when I first got into 3D printing. Now it’s all click-baity, contrarian stuff. Guess he’s gotta pay the bills somehow. Not for me anymore.
And yeah that intro was weird as hell.
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And not exactly for FOSS, but for digital consumer rights in general:
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Wow, just tried to watch that. I got through the first part, which i myself have a HUGE issue with, and tried to listen more, but dang it, i just could not. I will just sit here and get the cliff notes version. Anyone that puts that beginning together has lost my respect already!
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Tom seems to be running down the “I’m a content creator” path these days rather than the “This is how you do stuff and if you don’t want to watch it that’s OK path.”
Sadly youtube is turning into a tabloid haven. Next thing there’ll be bikini girls in his videos. I’m only interested in dry, boring tech stuff and it’s interesting to me that most of the long-standing youtubers can still get by without the nonsense.
As to the open source issue - I don’t know enough to be anything but an interested observer. I don’t feel strongly about how it affects large commercial operations, but I do have a lot of respect for Prusa’s perseverance, and the 14 salaries he pays just to keep the Slicer team in the game.
(and I am happy to pay a premium for that, and of course the customer service!)
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Meh, I quit watching his videos after his live build of the mpcnc. Not sure I care too much for taking technical reviews of machines from someone with so little interest in how they work, or taking troubleshooting advice from someone with so little interest in doing it. Looks like the attitude is carrying over to other areas, as well.
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Interesting topic here, and on the Klipper Forum too…
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