Re: Faxing and e-mail Modules Added to PhpMed

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Re: Faxing and e-mail Modules Added to PhpMed
by I. Valdes on Friday September 05, @03:32PM

While I agree that this discussion perhaps should be held privately, I cannot agree with some of your statements. In particular:

>"I am not trying to "control" PhpMed users. They >are free to modify their own code to their
>liking,"

Good, and in accordance with Free/Open Source Licenses.

>they just can't redistribute/sell that code."

Bad. Prohibiting redistribution is not in accordance with Free/Open Source Licenses and invalidates your claim that you are not trying to control PhpMed users. While it may be the case now, that you are not trying to control the users, there is no guarantee that this could change in the future at any time. You are basically saying 'trust us' with no guarantees.

>I think that is extremely fair. They also are not >required to contribute that code back into the >system (although it is extremely encouraged.)

Unfortunately, it isn't fair. Redistribution is a fundamental right of Free/Open Source software. If you accept contributed code while not giving the same rights that you have, that is not particularly fair.

>Unfortunately I do not have the luxury of working
>for free unlike you (apparently.)

Nor do most people. However, companies such as RedHat and OpenParadigms are able to make a living using Free/Open Source business models which yours really isn't. Your model is close, kind of a mixed free/proprietary model and I applaud you for your efforts using Free tools and language. But I think that not allowing redistribution rights will doom PhPmed to the same proprietary mistakes that have plagued other medical records software in the past.

I encourage you to contact myself and Fred Trotter offline because I think that your software and organization can become much greater by joining a much larger group that adheres to a straight FOSS model.

-- IV

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