The real answer is that Open Source is all about control. Control over your software. Control over your business.

Current trends in the software industry have made control a key issue in business. It’s an issue that no business can avoid. More and more, software vendors are rising up to claim possession of that which rightly belongs to the user. Your digital identity. Your usage habits. Your data. All are rapidly becoming the property of those who claim to serve your needs.

Before you dismiss this discussion as rantings from an Open Source zealot, consider the facts.

Have you studied the End User License Agreement (EULA) for every product you use lately? Probably not. They used to be as dull and tedious as they still are now, but they were at least ultimately understandable. Not any longer.

Mark Hochhauser, a psychologist who has spent several years studying the readability of licenses, has determined that many software EULAs are now less readable than that model of succinct clarity: Form 1040 from the US Internal Revenue Service. “You can throw together a bunch of words, the kind of words people use in daily conversation, and still make them complicated. Lawyers who draw up consent forms do this all the time," says Hochhauser. For example, rather than refer to private personal data, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act talks about "nonpublic personal information."

"Click to accept" licenses are rapidly becoming the software industry's version of an unwelcome Trick or Treat surprise where you find your house egged instead of blessed. And don't bother trying to print out a copy of the EULA to show to your lawyer. Much of the time, you can't even do that anymore.

Well, nobody would dare put anything damaging in a EULA, would they? Of course not. Unless you think that restricting free speech is a bad thing. One alert reader who was quoted in an Infoworld article had noticed the EULA for Microsoft Frontpage stating that, "You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services." After a public uproar, these prohibitions reportedly disappeared from EULA forms.

But the wonders of the extent to which Microsoft attempts to exert control do not stop there. Back in February, it was discovered that the fine print in the Product Use Rights (PUR) agreement for the Windows XP Professional product authorizes Microsoft to access user workstations at will. Under the language of the legal agreement, users grant Microsoft the right to automatically download updates to its operating system software and Digital Rights Management technology.

As InfoWorld columnist Ed Foster remarked: "You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the Product that will be automatically downloaded to your Workstation Computer." So now Microsoft has the right to poke around your machine and "fix" things as they see fit.

But who cares what Microsoft thinks about the erosion of customers’ rights? They're just a vendor, after all.

Try telling that to the city of Virginia Beach, VA. In the fall of 2000, Microsoft told the city to produce proof of licensing for every one of its 3,900 PCs. The city could not find paperwork for each and every product and finally paid $129,000 in licensing fees for products it already had acquired. The whole exercise cost an estimated $200,000 in licenses and lost manpower.

Just a little anomaly? Tell that to the Portland, Oregon Public Schools. Microsoft is demanding that they conduct an internal software audit to "certify licensing compliance." In a March letter, the software giant gave Portland Public Schools 60 days to inventory its 25,000 computers.

What would it cost Portland Public Schools, which is already facing a $36 million shortfall, to sign that Microsoft School Agreement? One estimate says around $500,000. So what we see here is having to have a $500,000 license to avoid prosecution. And a cool half million dollars is no small change for a school system burdened by limited finances.

Open Source has none of these roadblocks. No licenses that erode your rights. No company exerting its "right" to manipulate your software as it sees fit. No software hard-heads demanding both your compliance and your money. Open Source leaves you with just you, your software, and your business. You control your organization’s destiny. And that's the way it should be.

—Russell Pavlicek, is a software engineer veteran, consultant and columnist who writes on Open Source and corporate Linux. He is the author of Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development.