FSL: A Better Business/Open Source Balance Than AGPL

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2024-09-23 11:30:03

subtext: in my opinion, and for companies (and their users) that want a good balance between protecting their core business with Open Source ideals.

Following up to my thoughts on the case for funding Open Source, there is a second topic I want to discuss in more detail: Open Source and commercialization. As our founder likes to say: Open Source is not a business model. And indeed it really isn't. However, this does not mean that Open Source and Open Source licenses aren't a critical consideration for a technology company and a fascinating interconnection between the business model and license texts.

As some of you might know I'm a strong proponent of the concept now branded as “Fair Source” which we support at Sentry. Fair Source is defined by a family of springing licenses that give you the right to read and modify code, while also providing an exclusivity period for the original creator to protect their core business. After a designated time frame, the code transitions into Open Source via a process called DOSP: Delayed Open Source Publication. This is not an entirely new idea, and I have been writing about it a few times before [1] [2].

A recurring conversation I have in this context is the AGPL (Affero General Public License) as an alternative vehicle for balancing business goals and Open Source ideals. This topic also has resurfaced recently because of Elasticsearch'es Open Source, Again post where they announced that they will license Elasticsearch under the AGPL.