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I am not a lawyer. But my understanding is that the copyright holders have the right to change the license. Once people contribute to the project, they, too,

I am not a lawyer. But my understanding is that the copyright holders have the right to change the license. Once people contribute to the project, they, too, are copyright holders. If a contributor does not approve of the change to the license, he or she should have the ability to remove his contributions from the product (or otherwise relinquish copyright) before it is forked. In addition, anyone is free to fork from the last "free" version, which could cause its own problems for you. The free software community could decide that they much prefer the free version, significantly enhance that fork, and leave your commercial product looking dull and not worth the money.

cperciva 18y ago
But my understanding is that the copyright holders have the right to change the license. To clarify, the copyright holders have the right to relicense their work under a new license. This does not mean that old versions cease to be licensed under the old license -- works can be simultaneously available under several licenses, in which case people can decide which license to take advantage of.