Can You Be Denied the Right To Support OSS?

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< Software general ~ Can You Be Denied the Right To Support OSS?

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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:03 am Post subject: Can You Be Denied the Right To Support OSS?

Site Admin Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 42243

jerico.dev writes "I am currently selecting a CM tool for a project. Important condition: the software must be OSI compliant. I considered Alfresco, since they call themselves 'open source.' Then I heard from several of Alfresco's partners that they are not allowed to do projects based on Alfresco's GPL edition because their partnership contract denied them the right to do so. They only can support Alfresco's enterprise edition. But Alfresco's VP of business development Matt Asay told me that their enterprise edition is not OSI compliant. Does anyone in the Slashdot crowd have experience with partner contracts of other OSS vendors? Is it normal that Sun, Red Hat, etc. force their partners to decline projects based on their open source editions? It's probably legal to do so, but do you think it is legitimate and fair?"