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Language matters. The idea is neat, but "time-bomb" gives it a negative connotation. Instead maybe call it anti-abandonware licence, or public-benefit timer, o
by anilgulecha 10y ago
Language matters.
The idea is neat, but "time-bomb" gives it a negative connotation. Instead maybe call it anti-abandonware licence, or public-benefit timer, or something else. (I'm sure HN can come up with a better phrase).
- charonn0 10y agoHow about "GPL Failsafe"?
- caf 10y agoFail-open license.
- slowmovintarget 10y ago"GPL Time Lock"
- Mao_Zedang 10y agoThought crime police
- superice 10y agoAuto-release time lock
- uryga 10y agohow about just "auto release GPL?"
- uryga 10y agoGPL countdown something?
- v0lta 10y agoself releasing license
- JimDabell 10y agoI had a similar idea years ago and the name I came up with was "Eventually Open". It wasn't a case of abandoning code more gracefully per se, but simply that after a set period of time, code would be relicensed as open, regardless of the state of the business. So you might have a timeline like: * Today: release version 1.0. * 6 months into the future: release version 2.0. * 12 months into the future: version 1.0 becomes GPL. * 18 months into the future: version 2.0 becomes GPL. * 24 months into the future: version 1.0 becomes MIT. * 30 months into the future: version 2.0 becomes MIT. And so on. The latest version would be proprietary but source-included, and previous versions get relicensed as soon as they age out. The other alternative is to have the same mechanism, but with a donations system to speed up the relicensing. If your codebase is worth 30k to you, then if people chip in 30k, it gets relicensed immediately. If people chip in 15k it gets relicensed earlier than it would normally. It's not a good alternative to open-source, but it's preferable to completely proprietary as it makes it possible for abandonware to be picked up and maintained by third parties, and it offers an alternative mechanism for funding development of code that will eventually be open.
- anilgulecha 10y ago'Eventually open' sounds promising.
- noobiemcfoob 10y agoI would love see a full post discussing just this type of scheme and implications. I really like the donation to speed up access system. It feels like a libertarian wet dream for funding projects. It also opens a very interesting feedback channel between the community and the developers.
- touristtam 10y agoI am glad someone else is mentioning this; I have come to the same conclusion regarding non corporate software development a few years ago. It could potentially help, as well, closed source software, where the price would fluctuate (downward) depending on the number of initial buyers, so as not to inflate artificially the value of the product because of very sudden spike in popularity. Just a thought.
- SamBam 10y agoTime-release open source. Like the pills.