[ubuntu-us-ma] Interesting concern about open-sourcing a website

[Danny Piccirillo]

But there is still the risk of something like what happened to xbmc and
boxee happening. Boxee is a fork and is VC backed so xbmc isn't making
anything. Couldn't something similar happen to this website if it goes open
source? This seems like a big concern that is probably a reason many
projects don't go open source.
On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 01:21, Martin Owens <doctormo at gmail.com> wrote:

> You have to have a value add, if the value add is in the code, then the
> only way reddit will notice and take functionality from the code is if
> he already gets big enough to compete.
>
> On Fri, 2009-06-26 at 00:31 -0400, Danny Piccirillo wrote:
> > I was talking to someone about open sourcing a project of theirs
> > http://stocks29.homelinux.net:4000/ (cross between reddit and twitter)
> >
> >
> > I wasn't sure how to address his concern about the possibility of
> > someone using his code and killing his site. A site like reddit that
> > already has a brand that he can't compete with could take his code and
> > use it, or perhaps some aspiring entreprenuers with capital from VCs
> > could "take the open source code, improve it, and put more money into
> > marketing [...], pull contacts in the media [...], and leave [him]
> > with no avenue for profit
> >
> >
> > I've never heard of anything like this happening, but i'm also not sure
> what (if anything) guarantees that it won't. Anybody have an answer to this?
> >
> > --
> > http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo
> >
>
>


-- 
http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo
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