Submitting a new license or using the current ones

[Guilherme C. Hazan]

Hi Alex and John,

Thank you for the feedback.

> The principle that open-source software can be freely distributed and
redistributed is the
> very first point of the Open Source Definition.

Really? I thought that open-source meaned that the guy can see and change
the source, but not related to distribution. So, all OSI approved licenses
state that the distribution is completely free?

And what about different targets, e.g., sources and binary? Can we make the
sources open-source but the binaries not? Does this makes sense?

I don't understand why there are so many licenses, if the open-source
specification is so rigid.

> Whether a serious competitor will arise using your LGPLed sources is
> most likely unrelated to the licensing issue. Since you are going to
> release the sources of your software (and allow modification?), it
> seems to me that a competitor would have to do much more to survive
> the competition than simply apply an OSI-approved license to your old
> sources... Unless they have a sponsor who is determined to kill your
> project on the grounds of OSI incompliance.

Well, all this may happen. In fact, the project that is now LGPL will remain
LGPL. The part, that will be covered by the subscription, will be a new
product that will aggregate value to the already existing part of the
project (they are: a visual form designer, an enhanced version of a product
that is currently closed-source, and two vms that will boost performance in
10x).

Our idea is to make all these new parts as open-source (i mean, sources are
available to use and enhance, but not to distribute) only for people that
subscribe, and only during subscription duration (one year that can be
renewed).

I'm part of the open-source community for many years, and already
participated as conferencist on more than 10 open-source conferences. I'm
not at the evil side, please understand.

The main idea is to keep the sources open-source, but not the binaries. Is
this possible with any of the OSI licenses?

regards

    Guilherme

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