Open Source, Closed Market?

From the play that I just finished directing, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a high powered salesman, Charles Dabenow Schmendiman, claims to have had another great idea. "A tall pointy cap for dunces!"

So I tried one on an I had another great idea; I will take the freely offered Open Source code for say... something by Mozilla, how about Firefox. I will fully honor the spirit of the Open Source agreement and leave in all the tributes and adulations to the original authors. I will just slightly touch the source ... just enough so that instead of Fire it would be... PapaFox. Then I will release my version into the wild and wait for my share of the estimated $55 Million that Mozilla in enjoying.

So how come Mozilla isn't shaking in its boots over the prospect of PapaFox cutting so deeply into their revenue stream? Huh? Oh yeah, and where is my cut of that revenue stream - why aren't folks beating a path to my door? It is after all their product just slightly repackaged - "No difference."

• Who in their right mind would download from me what they can get from the original authors? They can get a package that they know will have integrity. The package will be up-to-date. In short the package offered by Mozilla is the real deal.
  
  
• So let's say that I could overcome the image issue of PapaFox. Then, in order to really make it mine I would have to substantially alter the original. Now I am not a programmer nor do I play a Doctor on TV but I know a thing or two about programs. They are huge! They are complex!
  
  Who would have the resources to invest in 'bootlegging' an Open Source application? Where is the profit incentive? Oh I know, I could sell PapaFox for substantially less than Mozilla is getting for it....Uh yeah, what is less than zero?

Now, just for the sake of discussion... lets say that I was able to overcome the previous two stumbling blocks... and I was moderately successful in offering a FireFox decendent that I actually made better (than the original) all the while adhering to the spirit of Open Source software. Now, jftsod, lets say that people started to download and use PapaFox.

Mozilla could take any of three paths; 'lawyer-up', 'pump-up' or 'wither-and-die'. When faced with the Cease&Desist order and being the uber-underdog I would laugh in their faces and try my case in the court of public opinion. Should they decide to Pump-Up then the race is on, as it should be. First they can simply re-incorporate my improvements right back into FireFox (all the while upholding the spirit of the Open Source agreement). Or they could 'black-box' engineer the improvements and just leave me out of it. In either case the product has improved and the consumer has received the real value of the exercise. Lastly, of course Mozilla could simple walk away from their product and I would be the heir apparent as the next browser king. Until the next uber-underdog came along.

This last option, Wither-and-Die, is not all that uncommon in Open Source projects. Authors for a myriad of reasons have to let programs go. Some cannot afford to maintain them. Some just lose interest. The real grace of the Open Source system shines through when an interested individual resurrects an program that has lain fallow. They breath new life into it and once again give it to the community.