I don't think that's true. If the competitive edge is in the released code, then MS and Google would also be able to use that and contribute to it to if they al

I don't think that's true. If the competitive edge is in the released code, then MS and Google would also be able to use that and contribute to it to if they also followed the terms. What you would really want is for all of these companies to follow the terms of the SSPL, not just one of them. But doing that would be very hard with the SSPL as it is now. It has a serious practical issue which was inserted on purpose in order to prevent adoption by those companies. I disagree that open source needs more licenses that are deemed "business-viable". Open source is a development strategy for sharing code, it has nothing to do with any business model. This is why MIT- and BSD-licensed code is the cornerstone of all these startups, those licenses don't give a crap what your business model is and it would be really bad if they did. If you want to help the community, please make it your priority to think about things that are good for everyone, not just your business. If you want to know my take on the philosophy of this, it's more like "Take our stuff, build cool stuff with it. Literally copy it if you want, it doesn't matter because our business is strong enough to withstand it." You might think I'm favoring large companies here but being strong enough to withstand it isn't about having more money, it's about having enough to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. Any company can have that, and if you're taking outside funding you probably should have that before you even talk to investors. I hate that I have to keep saying this but open source is about sharing code with everyone including your competitors. If you do it right you get to use their code too and everyone makes tons of money. Banning them from using your code entirely will not help to accomplish this goal.