A realistic view of formerly open source security

Michael Mimoso on Information Security Magazine has a good article reprinted on SearchSecurity.com that talks about how the view of "the community" is changing in open source security.

Michael laments about the days when tools like Snort and Nessus were free as in beer, including the rules and plug ins for them. But taking a realistic, mature view of business Michael acknowledges that these tools had to "grow up". Michael puts it in perhaps the clearest language I have seen yet on the subject:

Well, Nessus had to grow up; Snort too. They've been commercialized by those that built them, and that was inevitable. After all, this is a capitalistic society, and eventually the socialism that is the free software movement just doesn't pay the bills.

Free Software = Socialism?  Not sure I would go that far. But words like patent, copyright and license have invaded the communities and commercial providers of formerly open source and free tools try to walk a fine line between satisfying the user community and keeping a healthy bottom line. Taking the logic to the recent ClamAV acquisition, Michael says it is only a matter of time before the other shoe drops on that one (as I have said from day one). However, one thing I would like to point out is, I don't beleive that deal has closed yet. I have heard rumors that there may be some roadblocks which need to be overcome.  I guess we will see.

Michael and I are again on the same page in talking about the impact this will have on UTM and other vendors who bundle these products into their own.  The guys at Astaro and Barracuda may play it off as no big deal, but they have to be already thinking about their options. I don't think it is going to be as easy as they make out and will certainly cost them more.

Finally, right in line with our strategy on Cobia licensing  Michael talks about vendors abandoning pure "open source" licenses in favor of a Cobia communtiy type of license.  I think over time more and more of the open source tools you use will move to this hybrid model of licensing