A guy who implements a closed source idea as an open implementation usually ends up getting credit for taking the pain to implement the idea rather than coming up with the idea. The guys who created GNOME/KDE do not get credit for inventing the GUI. They get credit for making a usable opensource implementation of ideas that were born at XEROX PARC and even before that.
Anyone who creates a clone of a closed app is providing the starting point for derivative work. Even if the "first author" did nothing more than clone functionality, subsequent authors shall build new awesome features on top of that.
If you want to prevent OSS from getting in your way of making money, all you need to ensure is that you care about delighting customers. For Eg consider Google. they use android for controlling the platform on which search happens. The linux kernel hackers actually care very little about whether ur mom can use the phone. The non cool aspects of project get very little attention. To run a business, all you need to do is pay as much attention to the non cool parts of a project.
Apple still sells devices with huge margins. So all Dustin Curtis needs to do is "be the steve jobs" of his niche. He can make money off of it, if he chooses to, and get credit for what he creates true value from and the open implementations can co-exist.
Anyone who creates a clone of a closed app is providing the starting point for derivative work. Even if the "first author" did nothing more than clone functionality, subsequent authors shall build new awesome features on top of that.
If you want to prevent OSS from getting in your way of making money, all you need to ensure is that you care about delighting customers. For Eg consider Google. they use android for controlling the platform on which search happens. The linux kernel hackers actually care very little about whether ur mom can use the phone. The non cool aspects of project get very little attention. To run a business, all you need to do is pay as much attention to the non cool parts of a project.
Apple still sells devices with huge margins. So all Dustin Curtis needs to do is "be the steve jobs" of his niche. He can make money off of it, if he chooses to, and get credit for what he creates true value from and the open implementations can co-exist.