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New business model idea: write open source software with a license that requires, well, a license to _operate_. It's free in all the typical APL2 senses, except

by jonaf 7y ago

New business model idea: write open source software with a license that requires, well, a license to _operate_. It's free in all the typical APL2 senses, except that you can't sell it "as a service" without signing, effectively, a "lease." Now, supposing the project gains sufficient popularity / community / traction, all you have to do is wait for Amazon to take note of the project and contact you for a lease. You ask for 30% and retire. And if they invent a competing project that is at all API-compatible, they have to prove in court that they haven't plagiarized any of your open source code; but, that wouldn't happen anyway, since by their own admission, they're not focused on writing software, they're focused on operating it. Someone with experience/knowledge in this area tell me if I'm off my rocker. I know it sounds too simple. But why wouldn't this work?

jakelazaroff 7y ago
Aren't you basically describing SSPL? That's MongoDB's license that does pretty much what you're describing, except it's not considered open source [1]. And in response, Amazon created an API-compatible alternative called DocumentDB [2]. There's also the Commons Clause [3], which I think Redis Labs uses to license its Redis satellite products. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/mongodb-open-source-server-side-public-license-rejected/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/mongodb-open-source-server-sid... [2] https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ [3] https://commonsclause.com/ https://commonsclause.com/
- jonaf 7y ago
  This looks like a great case-study. Basically, it seems that if the licensing isn't in Amazon's favor (take the OSS project, put it into operation, sell it as a service), then Amazon is likely to simply build their own implementation that is API-compatible. It remains unclear whether the ROI for this exists, especially for larger/more complex projects, but the precedent is very discouraging for my idea.
dhd415 7y ago
FWIW, that sounds relatively similar to the licenses that Redis Labs, Mongo, and Elastic recently applied to their software. I have no problem with that, but judging from the discussions here on those licenses, lots of other people did.
pritambaral 7y ago
The problem is in how you define what "a service" is. Legally. See, for example, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18301116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18301116

by jonaf 7y ago

jakelazaroff 7y ago

Aren't you basically describing SSPL? That's MongoDB's license that does pretty much what you're describing, except it's not considered open source [1]. And in response, Amazon created an API-compatible alternative called DocumentDB [2]. There's also the Commons Clause [3], which I think Redis Labs uses to license its Redis satellite products. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/mongodb-open-source-server-side-public-license-rejected/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/mongodb-open-source-server-sid... [2] https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ [3] https://commonsclause.com/ https://commonsclause.com/

jonaf 7y ago
This looks like a great case-study. Basically, it seems that if the licensing isn't in Amazon's favor (take the OSS project, put it into operation, sell it as a service), then Amazon is likely to simply build their own implementation that is API-compatible. It remains unclear whether the ROI for this exists, especially for larger/more complex projects, but the precedent is very discouraging for my idea.

dhd415 7y ago

FWIW, that sounds relatively similar to the licenses that Redis Labs, Mongo, and Elastic recently applied to their software. I have no problem with that, but judging from the discussions here on those licenses, lots of other people did.

pritambaral 7y ago

The problem is in how you define what "a service" is. Legally. See, for example, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18301116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18301116