Providing a lightweight, democratic substitute for the common open source foundation was definitely one of the goals. > If they sell a version with a differenc

Providing a lightweight, democratic substitute for the common open source foundation was definitely one of the goals. > If they sell a version with a difference license to a company, how do the make the bill? Under the current draft, the contributor that proposed selling the license takes the payment. Then they distribute equal portions to other contributors: https://xlcollaborative.com/agreement/1.0.0-pre.3#distributing-payments https://xlcollaborative.com/agreement/1.0.0-pre.3#distributi... For the legal eagles out there, the effect is similar to accounting to joint owners. > What about donations or grants? There are no rules about donations as such. But the terms don't do anything to stop contributors accepting donations, either individually or through another facility. I haven't checked it, and I can't stand behind this as legal advice, but at least conceptually, I don't see any legal reason contributors to a cross-license collaborative couldn't also sign up for OpenCollective, GitHub Sponsors, Patreon, etc. > In case a nasty angry fork of the 45% of the contributors, does the other 55% effectively retain all the right? Can they remove the rebel 45%? The project may fork. The collaborative doesn't. Contributors remain contributors. Voting works the same. But new contributions to the fork won't be covered by the collaborative. They are not strictly equivalent, but as a thought experiment, consider: What happens to a foundation- or company-stewarded project when it forks? > Can they just add more and more phantom contributors to decrease the size of the rebel vote part? Who verifies that all the voters are real humans and not just sockpuppets / meatpuppets? The process for admitting new members, and the qualifications and requirements for admission, are spelled out in the terms: https://xlcollaborative.com/agreement/1.0.0-pre.3#contributors https://xlcollaborative.com/agreement/1.0.0-pre.3#contributo... Strongly encourage you to have a read through the terms. They've been prepared to be as readable as possible without legal training. I'd greatly appreciate feedback on what's confusing, unclear, or legally worded. We should fix that.