[License-discuss] Ethical + Support license addition for Apache

[Ofer]

On Thu, 8 Aug 2019 at 17:36, Gil Yehuda via License-discuss <
license-discuss at lists.opensource.org> wrote:

> >I'd love to know what you think of the whole thing.
>
> tl;dr: It's difficult to control other people's actions. Instead, seek
> acceptable outcome for yourself, and inspire goodness in others.
>
> You explain "I'd like to open source my company's code, but, I'm worried
> my code will be misused." which is a consideration we all have. But it's
> difficult to say what "misuse" means. Your example of misuse is competition
> and someone upset about progression from product to commodity. Is enabling
> these _misuse_? It might have a negative consequence to the code publisher,
> but it also has a positive outcome to everyone else. Misuse or market
> forces?
>
> That said, your proposed terms don't address outcomes that limit
> competition, but suggest people follow a set of ethical practices. Lofty
> aspiration, but why put it in a legal document? Write a blog post, give a
> sermon, inspire people to be good and charitable. Some people will listen,
> and the world (and the recipients of the charity) will thank you. But if
> you put it in a license, (like the JSON license did) it will not accomplish
> much. Since the release of the JSON license the world has yet to been
> inspired to avoid using software for evil.
>
> Practically: if anyone at my company wishes to use the Wakkaworks code
> under the modified license you pointed to, I will block them from doing so.
> It's not that I don't agree to be Ethical (#10) or to pledge Support (#11)
> to open source projects. Rather, I don't agree to have you determine if my
> company was ethical enough or pledged enough support for us to continue to
> use your code.
>
Let me clarify, I don't determine that, you do :-)
You use the code, you "Make sure your use of the software complies with
your own ethical standards", and you decide on the support $ amount.



> I suggest that if you find a company behaving unethically, that you don't
> do business with them. But withholding their access to your source code is
> not going to scale well or be effective. Are you really going to spend time
> tracking all the people who use your code and determining if they paid
> their pledges?
>
> I'd inspire charity and ethics by example, not by legal terms. Take the
> text from your license file and put it in your readme file. Say "We do the
> right thing. We are proud of what we do. We give at least $12 a year to
> charity as our way to perform Da'ana... We encourage users of our source
> code to do the same and make the world a better place." That can't hurt,
> it's a declaration, not a condition of use. Licenses are not inspirational
> texts.
>
> Gil Yehuda: I help with external technology engagement
>
> From the Open Source Program Office
> <https://developer.yahoo.com/opensource/docs/> at Yahoo --> Oath - ->
> Verizon Media
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2019 at 9:31 AM Ofer <blueofer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>> I'm a developer, now turned startup founder, so not much legal background
>> except my own curiosity.
>>
>> I'd like to open source my company's code, but, I'm worried my code will
>> be misused.
>>
>> The way I see it, code can bring value to a company.
>> By open sourcing the code, I can help share this value with other
>> companies, which is great.
>> BUT -
>> If my company open sources code, and then another company uses it to
>> decrease my company's value (e.g by direct competition), that's a bad
>> outcome. Recent example
>> <https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/09/aws-gives-open-source-the-middle-finger/>.
>> The other company could balance the fact that they're using my code and
>> decreasing my company's value, by paying my company. So it could still be
>> an overall win-win.
>>
>> The value my code brings to other companies also really varies on their
>> use, so it's hard for me to even determine it.
>>
>> So, I thought of adding these 2 clauses to Apache:
>> 1. Self-ethics: Make sure your use of the software complies with your own
>> ethical standards. [I think this clause is just a good thing to have
>> anyway, but also helps with the second, which is based on good-faith].
>> 2. Support: Give back a proportion of the value this software adds to
>> your business. For example, consider supporting with 10% of the added value
>> you get from this software vs an alternative option. Open source is a form
>> of public project, so this support is a form of daana (For more on daana,
>> see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%81na). I thought about
>> requiring a symbolic support of 1$ per company per month (or year?) as a
>> minimum and also requiring them to list themselves as users of the code
>> with a description of their usage and support amount.
>>
>> You can see a sort of a draft I wrote for the above 2 sections in the
>> Apache license:
>> https://github.com/wakkaworks/wakka/blob/master/LICENSE#L180-L191
>>
>> I'd love to know what you think of the whole thing.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ofer Bartal
>> CEO at WakkaWorks
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>> License-discuss at lists.opensource.org
>>
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