[License-discuss] Mixed 5yr non-open then fully open license

[Thorsten Glaser]

John Dupuy dixit:

>The license states explicitly that any code added during the 5 years
>does not change the expiration deadline. So any new code or changed
>code is commercial for LESS than 5 years.

With this and a fixed expiration date, your idea is quite interesting.

However, such a licence cannot ever be Open Source. The licenced work
can, on the other hand, be called Open Source after the five years have
expired, if the “B” part of your licence says that licence X applies
and X is OSI-approved. (It could also work if your B part says licence
X, Y or Z. Or even “any OSI-approved licence”, i.e. if the recipient
can choose.)

I’d not write a new licence for this. Rather, I’d do this over the
licence _grant_. The grant could just say: commercial licence A applies,
and on 2023-07-30, open source licence X (or X, Y or Z; or any OSI-
approved licence; whatever you chose above) is also granted on the work.
You’d likely need a CLA from contributors or their agreement to this
grant scheme.

That way you can say it’s not open source now, but on that fixed date
it will be.

bye,
//mirabilos
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