Open Source friends, Pardon if you find this off-topic. I tried to retrieve the FAQ from the list, but it doesn't exist, and can't seem to find a list charter. Can't find a good list search either. Anyway, I've read many of the licenses and some of the posts, but I don't see a good way to do what we're interested in.
My question to this group pertians to bridging the gap for commercial applications and the world of Open Source. Quite simply, is there a license (or would this group ever consider a license) that allows for a "Partial Open Source" product- perhaps a 95% Open Source license? Here's a little reasoning, comments flames and criticisms are welcome, while constructive discussion is encouraged: -- We have a product that we are considering publishing as open source. The product would be available for free download and use. Some features would be limited though, and only available if you purchase a commercial license. Thus, a portion of the code (containing a license key manager) would necessarily be closed-source in order to prevent someone from easily removing the license checking. We enjoy many of the benefits of open source software, and would like to contribute back. The major base of our software has some good stuff in it- that we're more than happy to publish and allowing anyone else to use/copy/redistribute, etc. We would like to do so in a way that allows us to still produce commercial products that are (paritally) closed source. After all, we have a payroll to cover. ;) Of the major companies that appear to be making money on open source products, it appears the primary method of doing so is via related services. However, services do not scale as well (commercially) as do products. So I'm searching for the happy medium. Thoughts? Regards, James Harrell, CEO Copernicus Business Systems, LLC -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
