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Ask HN: Is patio11 right about commercial licenses for OSS?
Relevant section:
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2015/01/28/design-and-implementation-of-csvexcel-upload-for-saas/#oss
Specifically: "My company is literally not allowed by the tax code to donate money, but it can buy any software it feels like"
This might be true for 'patio11, but is this the case for many companies (e.g. ones in the United States)? Even where it's not true, is there some other factor that would encourage businesses to purchase a license before donating to an OSS project?
I'd like to get other HNer's perspectives on these points.
- davismwfl 11y agoI will say that in larger organizations there are many times a number of road blocks to "donate" money to any cause, including an open source project. This is because there is a different connotation to the act when a company donates time or money to something, rather then when they purchase a commercial license. Many times a donation is considered an endorsement, when in fact that isn't necessarily the case when "donating" to a OSS project. It is more so, hey we value what you did and are getting value from it so here is some money to show appreciation etc. Sadly though, in the US with the litigious society we live in, companies fear "donating" funds to anything where they would not endorse the people or company behind whatever they are donating to. But the company would feel fine purchasing a commercial license as at face value it is a transaction rather than an endorsement.
- sarciszewski 11y agoThis makes sense too. See also: Brendan Eich.
- taprun 11y agoIt would probably be less questionable to take the money the firm would have donated and tie it into the creation of new functionality by the software's authors.
- sarciszewski 11y agoAs an open source developer, I actually like this notion. A free software developer might not ;)
- ksherlock 11y agoNot an accountant, but it depends on how the company is setup. You as an individual can get a tax deduction for a charitable donation, but you need to itemize your deductions. If you use the standard deduction (no mortgage, no huge medical expenses), you might need a $6,000+ donation to get any tax benefit. LLCs (and probably other passthrough entities) won't get any special tax benefit from a charity donation. However software purchases are a business expense and thus deductible.
- sarciszewski 11y agoI do a fair bit of OSS development, and I had considered releasing GPL code but also selling licenses to use our projects under terms identical to the MIT. But so far my actual development projects have mostly been in the realm of "mildly useful for security auditing purposes" rather than "instrumental or useful for companies" so I've mainly just MIT licensed everything.
- loumf 11y agoA sponsorship is very doable and tax deductible. So is a support contract. Or buying a the docs in a the form of a PDF -- or anything I buy, really. Donations are legal (I think), but might not be tax-deductible. All business expenses are, though (since you pay taxes on profit). Rule of thumb -- business benefits from it. Donations are tax-deductible by individuals only to the extent you don't benefit from it. Also, Patrick is in Japan, where things might differ.