There seems to be a growing sense among the Free Software community that Web2.0 companies are not living up to their end of the bargain.
Last month, Eben Moglen began with a relatively gentle attack on the Google for not giving enough back to the Free Software community that makes its $160+ billion market cap possible. Moglen argued that Google’s image was at stake within the community. He left unspoken the threat that the Sword of Damocles (in the form of a GPLv4 with an integrated Affero provision) looms over their heads if the "Community" is angered.
Yesterday, Matt Asay took it to the next level when he wrote in his CNET blog that:
Web 2.0 companies are in the habit of taking from open-source software and giving back selectively, if at all. As such, they tend to build on the free (as in price) versions of MySQL and Linux …The Web 2.0 world feels (to me) like a parasite on open source, not a strong contributor to it.
I’m not sure I buy into the idea of Web2.0 or even Google being a "parasite" on Open Source. But, this will be an interesting storyline to watch. The Free Software community is a passionate bunch, to say the least. If they turn on the Web2.0 companies that rely on them most… the results can be ugly.
Just look at what happened to Tivo, a company that nearly everyone agrees was a perfect citizen of the Open Source community under GPLv2 rules.