Those who don’t know about Meraki should have a bit of a read of their website. It’s got a feeling of sharing, of freedom, that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you buy an espresso machine…
But is it really?
Let’s talk a bit about their device’s history before we get into it. This group originally from MIT’s RoofNet got together and started a company. The aims seemed simple; allow internet access to span the globe cheaply and easily, make a living while still working with the friendly open source community. Earlier versions of their units were easily accessed and allowed a powerful platform for development of great wifi/embedded solutions. Their firmware on their devices was derived from OpenWrt (an Open Source project). Everything seemed peachy and for US$49 you could get a powerful little embedded machine that could either share your internet connection to those around you, or complete work of your choosing with a re-flashing of its firmware.
Then came the introduction of the modified EULA. I have to say ashamedly it was partly because of our questions when we bought our last 2 units… I’m sorry…
We simply wanted to know whether re-flashing the devices for a large scale community based mesh network would be against any sort of licensing before we went and bought several hundred. Within hours we had a response to our email letting us know that we should check the now updated EULA which had our question rephrased into a statement that re-flashing the device is against the EULA. Fantastic…
So how/why does this happen? We see this sort of thing happen all the time. People use the power of Open Source to launch a device or to get their company off the ground but very soon turn around and shun those that made it all happen for them. I sincerely believe that this mode of operation is not the way forward nor is it inspiring those wonderful Open Source developers to continue on if their work is used then dumped.
Take a stance! Let Meraki know that you won’t be using their equipment because of their closing up of their product! Is this against GPL? Are they using GPL’ed code and now calling it their binary? I don’t know answers to this – perhaps you do? If you start open, stay open! You can make a living while still making Open Source software – its all around us!
Join the movement and as we say in Australia, “Keep the bastards honest”
Meraki ends the age of freedom
Those who don’t know about Meraki should have a bit of a read of their website. It’s got a feeling of sharing, of freedom, that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you buy an espresso machine…
But is it really?
Let’s talk a bit about their device’s history before we get into it. This group originally from MIT’s RoofNet got together and started a company. The aims seemed simple; allow internet access to span the globe cheaply and easily, make a living while still working with the friendly open source community. Earlier versions of their units were easily accessed and allowed a powerful platform for development of great wifi/embedded solutions. Their firmware on their devices was derived from OpenWrt (an Open Source project). Everything seemed peachy and for US$49 you could get a powerful little embedded machine that could either share your internet connection to those around you, or complete work of your choosing with a re-flashing of its firmware.
Then came the introduction of the modified EULA. I have to say ashamedly it was partly because of our questions when we bought our last 2 units… I’m sorry…
We simply wanted to know whether re-flashing the devices for a large scale community based mesh network would be against any sort of licensing before we went and bought several hundred. Within hours we had a response to our email letting us know that we should check the now updated EULA which had our question rephrased into a statement that re-flashing the device is against the EULA. Fantastic…
So how/why does this happen? We see this sort of thing happen all the time. People use the power of Open Source to launch a device or to get their company off the ground but very soon turn around and shun those that made it all happen for them. I sincerely believe that this mode of operation is not the way forward nor is it inspiring those wonderful Open Source developers to continue on if their work is used then dumped.
Take a stance! Let Meraki know that you won’t be using their equipment because of their closing up of their product! Is this against GPL? Are they using GPL’ed code and now calling it their binary? I don’t know answers to this – perhaps you do? If you start open, stay open! You can make a living while still making Open Source software – its all around us!
Join the movement and as we say in Australia, “Keep the bastards honest”
http://www.meraki.com
http://www.fsf.org