Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lelanthran 96 days ago
> “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.

1 comments

> 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.

> 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.