Sun have announced that they will be removing links to download their popular office suite this Wednesday, following their decision to charge for StarOffice 6. Star Office 5.2 has proven one of the best office suites and has been seen as a free alternative to Microsoft Office thanks to its well-developed import and export filters.
The StarOffice 5.2 package will now be $39.95 for the deluxe version and $9.99 for a ‘Slim Kit’ version. This is a move that has seen a complete U-turn in the way it is distributed as when Sun bought out Star Division (the original developers of Star Office) it was distributed as a payed product. It has been available on a variety of platforms, including Windows and Linux but has never been available for the Mac OS.
The open source community rely quite heavily on using the facilities of Star Office for importing and exporting Microsoft files and have reacted strongly to this and the charging for StarOffice 6. Many open source companies have trouble keeping to the community’s ethos of making money from the product, but not selling it and making it proprietary.
The use of proprietary software by some open-source companies such as Mandrake is now a reality, as they use the offer of Star Office 6 as a sweetener to join their ‘club’ (i.e. pay a regular subscription). Ximian are now also charging for software which allows users to use Microsoft Exchange servers and to add the Star Office 6 package to their desktop by buying Ximian’s packaged product. On the other hand SuSE have chosen to not use Star Office and to move onto Open Office now, but they already charge for their distribution.
The financial feasibility of open-source is shown in companies like Red Hat who charge for services and support but for many companies giving away software is proving impractical, as the latest developments prove.
News source: ZDNet
View: Sun's Announcement
The StarOffice 5.2 package will now be $39.95 for the deluxe version and $9.99 for a ‘Slim Kit’ version. This is a move that has seen a complete U-turn in the way it is distributed as when Sun bought out Star Division (the original developers of Star Office) it was distributed as a payed product. It has been available on a variety of platforms, including Windows and Linux but has never been available for the Mac OS.
The open source community rely quite heavily on using the facilities of Star Office for importing and exporting Microsoft files and have reacted strongly to this and the charging for StarOffice 6. Many open source companies have trouble keeping to the community’s ethos of making money from the product, but not selling it and making it proprietary.
The use of proprietary software by some open-source companies such as Mandrake is now a reality, as they use the offer of Star Office 6 as a sweetener to join their ‘club’ (i.e. pay a regular subscription). Ximian are now also charging for software which allows users to use Microsoft Exchange servers and to add the Star Office 6 package to their desktop by buying Ximian’s packaged product. On the other hand SuSE have chosen to not use Star Office and to move onto Open Office now, but they already charge for their distribution.
The financial feasibility of open-source is shown in companies like Red Hat who charge for services and support but for many companies giving away software is proving impractical, as the latest developments prove.
News source: ZDNet View: Sun's Announcement
"Litigation is never our preferred course" said Edward P. Murphy, NMPA's CEO. "But when a company repeatedly demonstrates its intent, despite repeated warnings, to continue to engage in and facilitate activities it knows are causing grave harm to creators and copyright owners, there is little choice but to defend our rights through the legal system. To do otherwise would be to abandon Americaˇ¦s music community to the pirates"
Among the numerous recording artists and songwriters whose works are being unlawfully distributed include: Brandy, Boys II Men, Dave Mathews Band, Celine Dion, Shakira, Enya, the Beatles, Shakira, Billy Joel, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keyes, James Brown, Linkin Park, Madonna, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Paula Cole, Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer, and countless others.
Matt Oppenheim, Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs of the RIAA, said that the litigation was a last resort after numerous out-of-court warnings to Audiogalaxy were ignored or resulted in half-hearted attempts to fix the problem.
"Audiogalaxy and Napster are cut from the same cloth," said Oppenheim. "Audiogalaxy is profiting by providing its users a library of pirated music, including today's most popular hits. Though claiming fealty to copyrights, Audiogalaxy continues to offer up virtually all of the music we told them should be excluded. The firm's sieve-like filter has been totally ineffective."
Specifically, the suit, which also names Michael Merhej, head of Audiogalaxy as a defendant, charges that:
* Audiogalaxy had ample knowledge of the massive infringements occurring daily on its system, and in fact marketed itself as the next Napster.
* Audiogalaxy clearly had the ability to control the works available on its system and acknowledged the ability to remove users, or alternatively, to exclude certain content.
* Audiogalaxy provided users with a fully integrated, centralized structure and facility, including a hub of central computers to which users connected; a continuously updated database and index of infringing sound recordings; information about file size, popularity and download speed of files; and proprietary software to facilitate efficient identification, copying and distribution of recordings.
* Like Napster, Audiogalaxy seeks to profit from its pirate system by building an extensive user base to attract advertisers and investment dollars.
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