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Selling software via a proprietary license to an enterprise can be bad for open source because it means that the enterprise doesn't need to obey the terms of th
by ufo 10y ago
Selling software via a proprietary license to an enterprise can be bad for open source because it means that the enterprise doesn't need to obey the terms of the GPL. They are free to modify and adapt the code without contributing the changes back to the community, which kind of ruuing the point of the GPL in the first place.
This method also only works if the copyright if fully owned by a single person or entity, with all code contributors signing a contributor licensing agreement to give away their copyrights to a single entity. This is problematic because now there is the possibility that this single entity gets bought out by an evil corporation (say, Oracle), which can choose to continue developing the project without releasing the modifications under an open source license.
- ghaff 10y ago>They are free to modify and adapt the code without contributing the changes back to the community, which kind of ruuing the point of the GPL in the first place. As they are with the GPL so long as they don't distribute the modified code outside of the organization.
- ufo 10y agoIf they receive a copy of the software under a non-GPL license they might also be allowed to redistribute modified versions without releasing the source code. (This is usually the whole point of having the proprietary dual-licensing scheme).
- henrikschroder 10y agoSelling commercial license also gives you cold hard cash, with which you can buy ramen so that you can continue developing said software. Contributing to the community is all good, but you know, eating is slightly higher on the priority list.