On Thu, 8 Aug 2019 at 17:36, Gil Yehuda via License-discuss < license-discuss@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 <blueo...@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@WakkaWorks >> _______________________________________________ >> License-discuss mailing list >> License-discuss@lists.opensource.org >> >> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org >> > _______________________________________________ > License-discuss mailing list > License-discuss@lists.opensource.org > > http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org >
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