Oracle's acquisitions of Innobase and Sleepycat have spawned a series of articles and blogs suggesting that this marks some new and perhaps negative milestone for the open source movement.

It's true that many open source communities are (at least in part) helped by contributors whose employers allow their participation and it's possible that developers may have to opt out of supporting a particular project, based on competitive issues.

At the end of the day however — I think that this issue will be self regulating. The new dynamic is the community. If Oracle, or anyone else who acquires an open source project, starts taking actions that are unacceptable to the members of the community, they will vote with their feet and there will be a new project. In fact, the real question for the company that acquires the project is what do we need to do to keep the people excited about continuing with us. It is probably the best way to graft in the new model of the software world.

So, I'm not that worried.