[Koha] Liblime, Koha, BibLibre and FLOSS

[Thomas Dukleth]

Reply inline:

On Thu, October 22, 2009 19:53, Kyle Hall wrote:
> Maybe access to the source of in-house modifications should be a
> requirement
> for being a listed vendor on the site? We may not be able to alter the
> terms
> of the GPL, but we can decide the terms of koha.org ( assuming we have and
> will have that much control over it ). I would expect that we would have
> to
> grandfather all current vendors though.

I respond at the risk of great controversy but we have already seen what
trouble grandfathered treatment has caused in the Koha community and we
should be more careful in future.

[Please remember to be calm, civil, and respectful in any replies.]

There are altogether too many exclusionary rules already for being listed
on the 'pay for support' page .  There may even be legal hazard from any
possible mishap with a litigious library for certifying competence in a
world of human frailty if the Koha community might be understood to
function as a trade association in some legal jurisdictions which had
certified the qualifications of some members.

I presume we are now moving away from a process where one support company
or a small group of support companies would exercise exclusive control
over what appears on the community website.

I would prefer banning all mention of paid support services from the
community website to the nonsensical treatment which has come regarding
listing support service companies in the past year.  I am not recommending
such a ban but merely identifying what a problem the issue has been.

The very thing we should avoid is grandfathering, meaning exempting,
anyone from the rules.  Any rules worth having are rules which should be
applied equally to all.


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
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