Open Cola

Opencola -- A developer of distributed content search technology for knowledge workers. Based in Toronto. They burned through cash in classic late 90s Internet hubris style until the VCs finally realised that nothing was coming out the other end. Replacing virtually the entire staff was not enough to save the company and they folded after about 18 months.

They arguably never managed to deliver a final software product, but they did come up with a knock-off soft drink. The flavoring has the following ingredients:

  3.5 ml orange oil
    1 ml lemon oil
    1 ml nutmeg oil
 1.25 ml cassia oil
 0.25 ml coriander oil
 0.25 ml neroli oil
 2.75 ml lime oil
 0.25 ml lavender oil
   10 g  gum arabic (use only "food grade".  DO NOT use "art grade")
    3 ml water

+fizzy water

For full details, see: http://jamesthornton.com/blog/files/soft_drink_formula.pdf.

So if the drink is under the GPL, does that mean I'm not allowed to mix it with proprietary soft drinks? Remember! If you make changes to this cola recipe, you have to release yours to the cola community!

Although I suggest the above comment is made in jest--it isn't exactly true. Recipies are not copyrightable (LocalLegalAssumption), as they contain no element of original expression. Which means they cannot be subject to the GPL; but which also means that the writer of a recipe cannot prevent its subsequent distribution.

• Sure they can - the formula for CocaCola is a trade secret, for instance. They just can't use copyright law to control it. Furthermore, I imagine the specific document explaining how to make OpenCola is copyrightable and thus copyleftable, no?
  • Trade secrets are only secrets as long as they remain secret. If the cat gets out of the bag, they lose all protection. A document which contains the recipe for OpenCola (or anything else) is copyrightable to the extent that it contains "creative" elements (such as a paragraph describing how wonderful OpenCola tastes)--but the copyright extends only to the creative parts and the document as a whole work. Someone else could still republish the recipe minus the original parts. Of course, IamNotaLawyer, etc.

RandyCharlesMorin was a development manager at OpenCola.

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CategoryFoodAndDrink