I've been reading the evolving lisp thread with interest, and
it got me to thinking about a way to balance Kent's quest for
value with the FS search for freedom and community. Thinking
about compromise made me dream up a couple of possible licenses
which could maybe lead to compromise:
One idea is the time bomb license:
This code is governed by the following license until
<day in the future>:
<proprietary license>.
on <day in the future> this code becomese subject to
the following license:
<open source/free software license>
Another idea is the pay to free license:
This code is governed under <proprietary license> until
such time as <quantity of money> is deposited in my
bank account, at which time <open / free license> applies.
This one's probably more of a pain to implement but the time
bomb is very simple, and perhaps could provide revenue for
a year or two, backed up by the security that the code opens
up no matter what on a specific date. You might even get the
advantages of an open community while your code is still proprietary,
since the developers will have the assurance that they are investing
in something they can directly control, they'll just have to wait
a few months or years.
-Lyn