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The Business Source License is not Free as in Freedom. The FSF states the first requirement for software to qualify as Free (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free

• hedora 10y ago
  The FSF doesn't say you can run it when you wish. Seriously though, you download it now, and there is a contractual obligation that the software will be GPL later. Stallman used to charge people for improvements to emacs. This is the same, but with an extended delivery timeline that (hopefully) leads to better Free software. Also, note that once you pay, you get all the benefits / protections of the GPL, including redistribution of modifications after the timer expires. I'm not sure if you can redistribute modifications immediately or not. I would certainly hope so! (Any money for modified versions would go to the author of the original version, and there is no "we're missing feature X" like there would be with open core / demoware so why should they block such things?)
  • mrob 10y ago
    >The FSF doesn't say you can run it when you wish. Yes it does. "As you wish" means no limitations. It's a superset of "when you wish". By your argument all software is Free software, because eventually the copyright will expire. Being GPL later is better than being proprietary for as long as possible, but until it happens it's still non-Free.