[info]dkmnow in [info]07refugees

Damage control?

This just in from BoingBoing.

While Ben and Mena Trott, along with the rest of Six Apart, surely made a handsome profit on the sale of LJ to SUP, I think it's safe to say that their public and corporate image did not fare so well. Despite a conspicuous lack of detail in the following, it's not hard to read between the lines...

------

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/12/movable-type-now-und.html

Movable Type now under a free license
Posted by Cory Doctorow, December 12, 2007 11:41 PM

Movable Type, the popular blogging software, has gone free/open, relicensing its code under the GPL, the gold standard for free licenses. We've used MT ever since we migrated away from Blogger (and Ben Trott, MT's co-founder, personally did the migration for us!) and it's great to see the company adopting best practices with its code-base. Even better is the company's statement about why they've adopted a free license: because they want to promote freedom.

"Like many of us on the team, some of you have been waiting for this moment for years. For a business, an open source license affects boring things like how a product is created, updated, and distributed. But the open source movement has always been about something more important: Freedom. With a name like "Movable Type", we've always been keenly aware of the importance of freedom, as that name echoes both the birth of the printing press and the creation of independent media that an individual can control.

"Our goal has always been to create the best blogging platform in the world and to put that power in the hands of as many people as possible."

-----

Yes, you read that right. We only want to bring happiness and joy to all the little children of the world. Excuse me - I have to go to the bathroom.

Comments

"I figure Doctorow is a personal chum of the Trotts. Or something."

Cory says right there in the post that Ben personally helped him set up his blog...
Which, by itself, proves nothing. Trott was not swimming in corporate cash at the time, and as a small businessman, migrating someone's blog is hardly tantamount to being "best man" at their wedding. Doctorow's pollyannish tone and conspicuous omissions, on the other hand, are far more suggestive that they might be friends. Dig?
OK then :)