Author Topic: * * Public announce * *  (Read 36691 times)

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Andrea

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* * Public announce * *
« on: March 17, 2007, 09:25:49 PM »
First and foremost, I want to apologize personally about the delay before making a public announcement. We were busy tying up the loose ends on our side. It will take a few more weeks before our website comes online.

I want to use the opportunity to disclose some information, including our strategy. We firmly believe that the community has the right to know and understand where we are coming from, where we stand and where we are headed to.

DuctiSoft Inc is a privately held Canadian company founded on January 13th 2007. Its primary mission is to develop and promote ObjectDCL as a development platform for building tools dedicated to the AutoCAD environment that provide productivity gains. The board of administrators and executive officers are responding to the company stakeholders and to the community of users.

I, Martin Leduc, am a Canadian software engineer with telecommunication industry background. I bring with me years of expertise in research and development, software engineering processes, software test automation and the operation of quality control tools. The projects I worked on managed to rival the performance of the best software company on metrics such as defect rate per line of source code and long term defect rate per man-month.

In order to ensure the continuity of the product life, we studied several business models to find what could best promote the interest of the community, be a viable venture and mobilize the necessary resources to have ObjectDCL reach its full potential.

Part of the process, all options had been visited, including the continuation of the open source project and reliance on closed source development. First, open source projects require a strong core team dedicated to maintaining intellectual control on code change. Second, the most successful open source projects are backed by giant software companies (1). Getting the best minds to display interest to an open source project is expensive (2) as there is competition with other commercial activities they are already engaged into. Third, there is no giant software company backing up ObjectDCL. We can safely say that open source projects can see significant contributions from individuals and evolve quickly. However, the lack of intellectual control on changes can lead to fragile, unmanageable and bloated projects. This has more dire consequences for API projects as opposed to applications. In any case, adopters tend to be rarer in such case, and for good cause.

It is with great regret that we chose to have the GPL license revoked (3) as a condition of buying the rights on the product. We felt that in the eventuality of the open source project evolving in parallel to closed source development, we, as prospect buyer of all copyrights, would retain the moral obligation to manage it ourselves, to maintain intellectual control for it to grow to its full potential. We believe the termination of previously granted rights on the source code is the proper way to ensure the best use of our resources, which otherwise risked to be stretched thin and thus distancing us all from the primary mission.

An incorporated company seems the most efficient mean to jump start a new evolutionary cycle for ObjectDCL. As I mentioned earlier, ObjectDCL’s primary purpose is to generate productivity gains. It is reasonable to mobilize a portion of these gains and funnel it through intense development by a full-time staff. Also, it becomes possible to provide professional services, and to negotiate and share risk in introducing much needed features. All of which can serve to further the development of ObjectDCL. It is more difficult, riskier and less efficient to realize this with other types of organization.

The business model could change in the future, but at this moment, it is the form it will take.

Regards,

Martin Leduc, P.E.
Vice-President
DuctiSoft Inc.


DISCLAMER
AutoCAD is a trademark of Autodesk Inc. ObjectDCL is a trademark of DuctiSoft Inc.
Further, this document does not constitute legal advice and MUST NOT be used as substitute for the advice of a lawyer qualified in the particular areas of law to which this document relates. It expresses opinions and information that are provided in good faith.
(1) Open Office is supported by Sun Microsystems. Eclipse was initiated and supported by IBM and now has 115 member companies providing funding. (www.eclispe.org)
(2) The eclipse project requires millions of US dollars for its functioning in financial and staff resources. (http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/nov05/cernosek/ and www.eclipse.org)
(3) International copyright laws grants the right to the author to revoke any license at any time and of any form (including GPL), unless an irrevocable grant of rights is registered to a proper legal body.
Keep smile...

Chuck Gabriel

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2007, 10:03:31 PM »
F.U.D.  ala SCO group, Microsoft, et. al.

Maverick®

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2007, 10:32:42 PM »
  Can someone copyright all of the help Andrea has gotten for FREE here over the last few years?

  I'm just a non-programmer asking silly questions here.   :wink: :-)

Maverick®

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2007, 10:39:28 PM »
Andrea, Please read this post.


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Thank you for your cooperation, sincerely -- Mark S. Thomas

uncoolperson

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2007, 11:25:32 PM »
anybody else feel a sharp stabbing pain in the back?

BazzaCAD

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2007, 12:22:43 AM »
anybody else feel a sharp stabbing pain in the back?

Actually no, I find it pretty funny.  :lmao:
With over 150+ bugs killed in OpenDCL, including a number of long standing ObjectDCL 3.0 bugs & with 2 lead developer & 12+ beta testers, I find it hard to believe OpenDCL is a "fragile, unmanageable and bloated project".

I'd like to hear more from DuctiSoft Inc. "board of administrators and executive officers" other then Andrea & Martin, or are they the President, VP, board of administrators, executive officers, lead developers, & beta testers all rolled into one?

Keith™

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2007, 02:55:59 AM »
Personally I think that if Andrea can make a profitable venture from this then good for him.

I don't understand why you folks feel that way .. unless you were part of the original development team or the ongoing maintenence team, then I see no reason to feel that way.

Sure, the removal from GPL means no more free reign with the code and/or executables, but unless you have invested something into the program, you have little room for complaint. Remember, every software license that you purchase is nothing more than the right to use the software ... that right can be revoked at any time ... In fact, if you look at the Autodesk license agreement, if you are on subscription, once you decide to not renew a subscription, you are legally bound to no longer use the software .. (i.e. your license expires with your subscription)

It just so happens that the GPL is being revoked and as such your license has just expired. No matter how you feel on the matter, that is the way it is ...

Personally I find GPL similar to socialism or communism ... take from those that have and give to those that do not have ... uh .. no ... you give me what you want to give me ... and I should be thankful for the gifts I receive from you ... but I should never take them for granted ... and when I begin to EXPECT things, you should cease to give.

Personally I would never release anything under GPL ... even if it meant that the code would become better .. because better code doesn't put groceries on the table.
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Kerry

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2007, 04:54:56 AM »
Keith, active members of this site who were long term licensed users of the original product, and others,  are heavily committed to the continued development of OpenDCL  .. and yes this involves a heavy investment of time and intellectual talent.

You may want to have a look at this
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=486856
I'll point you to first post and the last 10 or so.



« Last Edit: March 18, 2007, 04:58:08 AM by Kerry Brown »
kdub, kdub_nz in other timelines.
Perfection is not optional.
Everything will work just as you expect it to, unless your expectations are incorrect.
Discipline: None at all.

Kerry

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2007, 05:00:14 AM »
............. The board of administrators and executive officers are responding to the company stakeholders and to the community of users.
...............

Just who is included in the 'community of users' that you are responding to. ??

 
kdub, kdub_nz in other timelines.
Perfection is not optional.
Everything will work just as you expect it to, unless your expectations are incorrect.
Discipline: None at all.

Kerry

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2007, 05:25:07 AM »
Just to make my personal position perfectly clear.

If OpenDCL does not continue I will not be using ObjectDCL. My experience with broken promises regarding the release of a version for AC2007 and my subsequent direct and indirect financial losses have taught me a lesson. When coupled with my knowledge of one of the principals gleaned from the exchanges answering his coding questions guarantee that I will not be renewing my license. 
kdub, kdub_nz in other timelines.
Perfection is not optional.
Everything will work just as you expect it to, unless your expectations are incorrect.
Discipline: None at all.

Chuck Gabriel

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2007, 08:39:47 AM »
It just so happens that the GPL is being revoked and as such your license has just expired. No matter how you feel on the matter, that is the way it is ...

We've been over this before Keith.

Quote
Can the developer of a program who distributed it under the GPL later license it to another party for exclusive use?
    No, because the public already has the right to use the program under the GPL, and this right cannot be withdrawn.

From The GPL FAQ.

Keith™

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2007, 11:19:38 AM »
Sure, I know what the GPL says, but what is on paper seldom is what a court will decide.

The Autodesk example ... you have a license to use AutoCAD .. that license is paid for, and it can be revoked .. how much simpler is it to revoke a license not paid for.

I went through this in 1999. I was advised that the software I developed could be used by others only as long as I allowed them to use it. In the end, a court order to a company to stop using my code because I had expressly forbid them from using it any longer was all that was needed. I don't think there is much difference here.
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TimSpangler

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2007, 11:53:08 AM »
So lets understand something.  How will /not this affect the development of OpenDCL?  If I understand correctly this should have no bearing on the open source project that is OpenDCL, Correct?  This is only referring to ObjectDCL?  I certianly hope so, I am just starting to get into the OpenDCL.

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JohnK

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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2007, 12:33:12 PM »
That is correct. Open is a fork in Object.
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Re: * * Public announce * *
« Reply #14 on: March 18, 2007, 12:35:29 PM »
<silly comment removed>

Hey good luck to you guys at DuctiSoft Inc. I really hope you can make a killer app for a fair price.
Even though I have a pretty high “defect rate per line of source code” I am going to continue rolling my own for now.
I think some of us here are a little too gun shy to take on the risk of using proprietary software from an unknown company.
Personally I would feel much safer with an open source model. 

« Last Edit: March 18, 2007, 02:00:56 PM by Danielm103 »