Open Source Blog

Tiemann appears to have been pushed over the edge by this post by Dana Blankenhorn about open source CRM, or more specifically, by CRM vendors that claim to be open source even though they are not using an OSI-approved license.

Blankenhorn had written: “Then there’s open source, the only way in which CRM start-ups can elbow their way into the market today. SugarCRM, SplendidCRM and now Centric have proven there’s a place in the market for this (if you read your license carefully).”

Tiemann responds: “It is logical precisely because there really is not room in the market for Yet Another Proprietary CRM system. It is fallacious because THESE LICENSES ARE NOT OPEN SOURCE LICENSES.”

A quick perusal of Centric CRM’s Centric Public License confirms that it fails the OSI-approved test.

“You may use, copy, modify, and make derivative works from the code for internal use only. You may not redistribute the code, and you may not sublicense copies or derivatives of the code, either as software or as a service,” it states.

SugarCRM, meanwhile uses an MPL+Attribution license, the like of which Tiemann asked the OSI Board to discuss in January with the hope of coming up with a coherent answer as to whether they are should be approved by the OSI or not.

SugarCRM’s proposed move to the GPLv3 would potentially solve that issue with regards to the CRM vendor, but there are plenty of other vendors using similar licenses, including SplendidCRM.

“If the market is clamouring for open source CRM solutions, why are some companies delivering open source in name only and not in substance? I think the answer is simple: they think they can get away with it,” Tiemann added.

Not any more they won’t.

“So here's what I propose: let's all agree--vendors, press, analysts, and others who identify themselves as community members--to use the term 'open source' to refer to software licensed under an OSI-approved license,” Tiemann wrote.

“We should never put the customer in a position where they cannot trust the term open source to mean anything because some company and their investors would rather make a quick buck than an honest one, or because they believe more strongly in their own story than the story we've been creating together for the past twenty years. We are better than that. We have been successful over the past twenty years because we have been better than that. We have built a well-deserved reputation, and we shouldn't allow others to trade the reputation we earned for a few pieces of silver.”