[ Thanks to BeOpen
for this link. ]
“Randy Terbush is the founder and president of Covalent, a San
Francisco-based company that sells security and networking tools
built to augment the functionality of the Open Source Apache Web
server. Some have referred to Covalent as the Red Hat of
Apache, referring to the fact that the company has been the first
to establish a widely branded presence in a marketplace many see as
the true bastion of Open Source software development.”
“Unlike Red Hat, however, Covalent mixes proprietary and Open
Source development, selling closed source products such as
RavenSSL, a secure socket layer which allows businesses to use
Apache as a platform for e-commerce. Because RavenSSL incorporates
cryptography protected by the RSA patent, Terbush notes that
Covalent could not release it as an Open Source product even if it
wanted to. At the same time, however, as a charter member of Apache
group, the seven member committee of Internet experts that oversee
Apache’s Open Source protocols, he sees no conflict in companies
using Open Source software as a starting point for further
proprietary development.”