Nokia: Open source developers need to embrace DRM

According to BusinessWeek, Nokia’s Dr. Ari Jaaski told a group of open source developers on Tuesday that they need to “obey” certain business rules, such as DRM, intellectual property rights, SIM locking, and subsidized business models.

Last time I checked, open source developers generally write applications that fulfill a need that’s otherwise gone unfulfilled – and most of those developers work for free.

Jaaski conceded that things like DRM “go against the open-source philosophy” but Nokia has to cover its bases from a legal standpoint, I suppose. It’s just difficult to convince people to develop free software for you after you tie their hands together.

Jaaski also admitted that Nokia has learned from some of its early mistakes concerning the Maemo platform, which is used on the company’s N770, and N800-series Internet Tablets – particularly that future software development for the platform needs to be less fragmented by adhering closer to Nokia’s standards.

"Don’t make your own version. The original mistake we made was to take the code to our labs, change it and then release it at the last minute. The community had already gone in a different direction than [us], and no-one was pushing it other than [us]. Everybody wants to make their own version and keep it too close to their chest but that leads to fragmentation."

I read this as Nokia saying, “You guys develop free stuff just for our devices. We’ll take the code when it’s done and lock it down.”

via Slashdot