- changed to Noncommercial License [1]
- charge for issues. 9 USD or I close immediately. If someone posts something that is a genuine concern, I will address it. However minor issues or feature requests, you're on your own, unless you want to pay for my time.
I mean, that's great, if that works for you. But it's hardly a solution to the open source ecosystem, as if everyone moved to a noncommercial license, it wouldn't be open source anymore.
You seem to parrot the typical business line of "business cant use it for free, so its not open source!". I don't accept that line of thinking.
> The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
So if businesses cannot use it for commerical purpose, that's not open source literally by definition. It is not about what your line of thinking is. Words have meaning and "opensource" has a specific meaning.
If you want to talk about software that must not be used for commercial purpose, there is a specific word for it too and the word is "noncommercial" which is not the same thing as "opensource".
> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software
> to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software
Adding restrictions on who can use the software goes against the idea that the software is for anyone, anywhere.
The quote above comes from OSI (Open Source Initiative):
> 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
> The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
> 6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
> The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
For-profit business is a "field of endeavor". Restricting usage for for-profit businesses can be a good idea, but it's no longer open source.
Right. OSI is steered by business interests, and has distorted the public view of what open source actually is. So currently anything that is not "business friendly", is not open source. I reject that notion out of hand.
It's a (these days popular) rewriting of history to suggest that "big business interests" are the only reason open source definitions do not allow authors to restrict what a user can do with the software. Rather, from the start, this was seen as a fundamental freedom, the freedom to run the software as you wish rather than have to get permission from the copyright holder as to how you are to use it, where you are to run it, for what purposes.
It's, for instance, been part of the GNU license since before OSI even existed, and in those days I don't think anyone would argue GNU was a tool controlled by "business interests". In fact, the reason people now don't seem to like this requirement for "freedom to run" is precisely because it interferes with their "business interests", their desire to make money from open source. That may be a respectable desire -- but open source does not conflict with it becuase of "business interests", but the opposite, because it's ethos was from the start about the rights of users to have freedom to use software, not about "business interests" in profiting from it.
[1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/programs-must-not-limit-freed...
But sure, you are part of a movement to change the definition of open source to suit certain business interests in opposition to the original principles of freedom that motivated the concept of open source. I acknowledge that movement exists, and that you all are attempting to change the meaning of open source. People have tried to change the meaning of open source to suit their business interests since it began, but there is a new wave of invigorated effort to put holes in the meaning of open source to serve certain business interests. I don't think you have succeeded yet, and I hope you do not, and I'll keep pointing it out. If anyone can call anything they want open source, of course various business interests will, since it is viewed as an attractive label.
I am not a part of anything here, unless I suppose you want to place me in a very loose group of linguistic descriptivists. I am concerned here with how the phrase "open source" is actually used across the breadth of English speakers, not with how it is defined solely by groups and persons with specific political goals.
For me personally, the "without restrictions" part is a huge part of why I use OSS. I want to use it for whatever I want, and is the same reason I publish OSS for others, I want them to be able to use it for whatever they want, even if I personally disagree with whatever that is.
https://polyformproject.org/licenses/noncommercial/1.0.0
Someone could put time and effort into some software, and put it out to the world to be used for decades. Some company could then use that software to make a profit, and the original author would get nothing. I don't think thats right, and I will keep raising awareness against those who have been brainwashed into thinking only business friendly licenses are open source.
But this:
> I will keep raising awareness against those who have been brainwashed into thinking only business friendly licenses are open source.
is not generally a helpful perspective to have. I understand you don't agree, and you want people to understand your point of view. But if your goal is really to "raise awareness", it generally doesn't help to call other people "brainwashed". I won't call you brainwashed because you don't agree with me, not everyone needs to have the same opinion.
It's possible to have a different perspective than others without being manipulated by something else.
Hard disagree because I have been in the open source arena for two decades and I have never seen any notable project using "open source" to mean "source code is available". A software whose source code is available is just "source available" but "open", "free", "libre" mean much more than just source code available. I am not making this up! Just look at the license terms of any open source project of repute.
"Source available" is not enough for me to use a software. If a software license forbids any field of endeavour (including but not limited to commercial activity), it is no longer "open" to me anymore. Sure the source is available but it is not open, it is not free, it is not libre because it discriminates against a field of endeavour.
When I make something open source I really mean "open" and any individual or organization should be able to use my software without any discrimination while agreeing to the terms and conditions set out in the license.
If I really want to forbid commercial activity, then I will choose a "noncommercial" (and thus non-open, non-free, non-libre) license.