All these licenses and business models

[David Johnson]

On Thursday 17 January 2002 01:49 pm, David wrote:

> My issues
> 1: I do not want to be a services only company, in fact I want to sub
> contract most services (maybe even zope type model).
> 2: I do want to be able to sell the system for a profit.
> 3: I do want to make source avaliable to let developers and interested
> parties get involved in the system.
> 4: I would like to employ only developers who actually contribute to the
> project and pay them for development.
> 5: I would like many to get the system free (education etc.)
> 6: I would like to ensure nobody can steal the product or at least delay
> thsi until we are a substanical company (if we are not good then
> somebody should fork but I would prefer a fighting chance).

Hmmm, sounds like pure open source is not what you want. Free Software as a 
*product* has generally not worked out. Open Source companies making a profit 
over the long term are using services, addons, hardware, etc. Basically, the 
software is their loss leader.

But here is something you could do: Sell your software as 
"semi" open source. Create a license that make the software free for 
non-commercial use, including education, non-profits, etc. Everyone else has 
to pay for it. I would even throw in the source code, but don't allow 
distribution of modifications.

Then the important part: Release all versions older than one or two years as 
true open source, and let everyone know that you will be doing so.

Aladdin does something similar for Ghostscript, and makes money doing it.

-- 
David Johnson
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