[gitgud]

Well yeah, business has literally always extracted value from open source software, that’s one of the main benefits of it… (although license violations have been unprecedented with AI)

“Creating value” in open source has never been about capturing value at all, it’s always been about volunteering and giving back, and recognising the unfathomable amount of open-source software that runs the modern world we live in

“Capturing value” is the opposite of this, wall-gardens, proprietary API’s, vendor lock-in, closed-source code… it’s almost antithetical to the idea of open source

[lelanthran]

> “Creating value” in open source has never been about capturing value at all, it’s always been about volunteering and giving back

I disagree; the GPL has always been transactional. You capture the value in your product by ensuring improvements come back to you. The user "pays" by not being able to close the product off.

[zozbot234]

> You capture the value in your product by ensuring improvements come back to you. The user "pays" by not being able to close the product off.

If clean-room re-engineering a MIT code base starting from a GPL one is legit, then AI has just made that the status quo for everything.

[lelanthran]

> If clean-room re-engineering a MIT code base starting from a GPL one is legit, then AI has just made that the status quo for everything.

I agree; this is what I meant by "the value is being captured by someone else".

GPL provides the author with a specific value - you get back improvements. Using AI to launder that IP so that improvements don't have to be upstreamed is effectively capturing the value.