Patrick Ewing infamously proclaimed, in his role as the leader of the player’s union during the heated negotiations with NBA basketball team owners circa 1999, that the strike was an issue of putting food on the table for his children. Ewing and his offspring may not have faced any real threat on the food and shelter front, but it could be argued that it is indeed a question that dominates (and determines) the lives of most human beings. In previous posts ([1], [2]) I offered some responses to Dan Jalkut and John Gruber’s criticism of the GPL and Matt Mullenweg’s defence of it. Both Dan’s criticisms and my responses were centred around his sense that the GPL stifles participation. But the other 800-pound question is: is a GPL model sustainable? And importantly, are the alternative Open Source ones any more so?
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