Last week at the FOSS.IN conference in Bangalore, India, Simon Phipps, chief open source officer at Sun Microsystems, expressed concern over the large number of corporations moving into the free software arena, and how this has resulted in legions of open source programmers being hired and paid by big business. The development has raised questions about how open-source developers on corporate payrolls can protect their freedom and rights from the “corporate elephant,” and resist corporate influences that may run counter to the free software community’s interests.

For example, some companies like to manage open source projects, rather than facilitate them. Employees are also likely to get caught up in ownership fights on contributions, such as whether the contribution should be recognized on behalf of the employee or the company.

But for those companies employing such tactics, they’re missing the boat on the very benefits that the open source model has to offer: the free distribution and sharing of code and knowledge for the development of new and better software. On the flip side, here at SugarCRM we’ve seen the hiring and embedding of open source minds within corporate America lead to tremendously successful implementations and embracement of open source that otherwise would have passed by, thus continuing to feed the explosive rates at which open source continues to be adopted.

In addition, I agree with Phipps when he says that open source developers should be more assertive when identifying the companies they would like to work with, and in negotiating agreements with companies that protect their rights. Employees should assert, for example, the right to blog and continue to participate in the projects they have been involved with. After all, if leveraged properly, the open source model results in a win-win situation for all parties involved: corporate America, communities and developers, and open source vendors and providers alike.