The Time-Bombed license is exactly what it sounds like. From a legal\risk perspective i would be a strict no for anyone willing to invest in a company that uses such IP at its core. What is the guarantee that the founding team will be able to replace the core IP with something proprietary when they reach the time limit. Even more customers will not want to have anything to do with your internal IP licensing and having a risk of open sourcing their products .
All I would say is, keep it simple. Take X % upfront and get done with it. keep the X% so low that people dont really care . But the X% across hundreds of companies adds up really quick. If some one does not want to give the X% then may be have other models. When a company is founded or 6 months old there is no way you can value it. Its just a time/opportunity/risk decision anyway. Then why waste time trying to have a case to case discussion everytime. A lot of people may not even come to the table to discuss and may just go the other way. Chandan On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Matt Lind via nupic <[email protected] > wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Matt Lind <[email protected]> > To: "NuPIC general mailing list." <[email protected]> > Cc: > Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2015 21:43:19 +0800 > Subject: Re: New Dual-licensing Idea: Time-Bombed Open License > The best thing about it is its name, time bomb. Because that's exactly > what it is. And I don't think any developer, or customer, would feel > comfortable sitting on one. Besides, it'd be difficult to implement, > operationally (when exactly do the 2-4 years start? When you download the > GPL? Start coding? Sell to customer? Customer starts using it?, ..) and > legally (what exactly are you selling to your customer?). So, it's a nice > thought experiment, but my guess is, it's not realistic. > > Matt > > > > > > > On 05 Jun 2015, at 21:09, Fergal Byrne <[email protected]> > wrote: > > No such thing as a stupid question David, just the ones you don't ask! > This is a (barely) 4-day old idea, so it'll have wrinkles. Please test to > destruction. > > On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Fergal Byrne <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> If you're a small startup, and you want to build an Open Source project >> so that you have extra help developing it, you're currently stuck never >> earning money directly from the product (you're reduced to secondary income >> from support, consultancy and so on). You might not have the resources to >> build it all yourself (we don't all live in the Valley and have the ears of >> investors), and developing your own commercial license is tricky and >> expensive. >> >> This idea gives you a chance to combine the best of both, and avoid the >> worst. It also reassures investors that your customers will not be lost in >> the event your startup fails, because it reverts to an open source project. >> >> >> >> >> >> On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 2:02 PM, cogmission (David Ray) < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hmmm. Then I don't see the advantage? It's like having your intellectual >>> property torn out from under you after 4 years? :P lol! >>> >>> On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 7:48 AM, Fergal Byrne < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> No, that's exactly what it says you can't do! You have to go 100% Open >>>> Source after 2-4 years, you have to monetize before then. On the other >>>> hand, you can start again with a new major version of your product, but the >>>> old version will have to have been fully opened up. >>>> >>>> On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 1:43 PM, cogmission (David Ray) < >>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Assuming the business in question is fully able to monetize their >>>>> initial offering within 4 years, they could then (after being bombed :-P) >>>>> opt for a full commercial license with full fees. I like it! It offers a >>>>> way to charge a minimal affordable fee initially while the business model >>>>> awaits confirmation - while still offering the original rights owner the >>>>> ability to capitalize later when affordable by the customer. >>>>> >>>>> Interesting... >>>>> >>>>> On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 7:26 AM, Fergal Byrne < >>>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Hi guys, >>>>>> >>>>>> After a wonderful weekend at the hackathon, Richard Crowder and I >>>>>> were brainstorming as we walked around Manhattan on Monday. We came up >>>>>> with >>>>>> a new (or new twist on an) idea for dual Open Source/Commercial projects. >>>>>> We call it the Time-bombed Open License [1]. >>>>>> >>>>>> The idea is that you release your software under something strongly >>>>>> copylefted like the GPL for non-commercial use. For commercial users (who >>>>>> often can't use GPL software inside their own codebase or business), you >>>>>> charge a fee to absolve the customer from all the GPL obligations, but >>>>>> with >>>>>> a catch. >>>>>> >>>>>> Your ability to operate the commercial license is time-bombed for 2-4 >>>>>> years, after which time it becomes fully GPL (or whichever your OSS >>>>>> license >>>>>> is). This is transitive, so your customers must also start a time-bomb of >>>>>> the same length. >>>>>> >>>>>> We'd welcome feedback on this idea from you guys, and wonder would >>>>>> this be of interest for Numenta's commercial license for NuPIC? It might >>>>>> also be worth thinking about for nupic-community projects (this would >>>>>> involve Numenta granting commercialisation rights to these projects). >>>>>> >>>>>> Regards, >>>>>> >>>>>> Fergal Byrne >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> [1] http://occupystartups.me >>>>>> -- >>>>>> >>>>>> Fergal Byrne, Brenter IT >>>>>> >>>>>> http://inbits.com - Better Living through Thoughtful Technology >>>>>> http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fergbyrne/ - https://github.com/fergalbyrne >>>>>> >>>>>> Founder of Clortex: HTM in Clojure - >>>>>> https://github.com/nupic-community/clortex >>>>>> >>>>>> Author, Real Machine Intelligence with Clortex and NuPIC >>>>>> Read for free or buy the book at >>>>>> https://leanpub.com/realsmartmachines >>>>>> >>>>>> e:[email protected] t:+353 83 4214179 >>>>>> Join the quest for Machine Intelligence at http://numenta.org >>>>>> Formerly of Adnet [email protected] http://www.adnet.ie >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> *With kind regards,* >>>>> >>>>> David Ray >>>>> Java Solutions Architect >>>>> >>>>> *Cortical.io <http://cortical.io/>* >>>>> Sponsor of: HTM.java <https://github.com/numenta/htm.java> >>>>> >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://cortical.io >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> Fergal Byrne, Brenter IT >>>> >>>> http://inbits.com - Better Living through Thoughtful Technology >>>> http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fergbyrne/ - https://github.com/fergalbyrne >>>> >>>> Founder of Clortex: HTM in Clojure - >>>> https://github.com/nupic-community/clortex >>>> >>>> Author, Real Machine Intelligence with Clortex and NuPIC >>>> Read for free or buy the book at https://leanpub.com/realsmartmachines >>>> >>>> e:[email protected] t:+353 83 4214179 >>>> Join the quest for Machine Intelligence at http://numenta.org >>>> Formerly of Adnet [email protected] http://www.adnet.ie >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> *With kind regards,* >>> >>> David Ray >>> Java Solutions Architect >>> >>> *Cortical.io <http://cortical.io/>* >>> Sponsor of: HTM.java <https://github.com/numenta/htm.java> >>> >>> [email protected] >>> http://cortical.io >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Fergal Byrne, Brenter IT >> >> http://inbits.com - Better Living through Thoughtful Technology >> http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fergbyrne/ - https://github.com/fergalbyrne >> >> Founder of Clortex: HTM in Clojure - >> https://github.com/nupic-community/clortex >> >> Author, Real Machine Intelligence with Clortex and NuPIC >> Read for free or buy the book at https://leanpub.com/realsmartmachines >> >> e:[email protected] t:+353 83 4214179 >> Join the quest for Machine Intelligence at http://numenta.org >> Formerly of Adnet [email protected] http://www.adnet.ie >> > > > > -- > > Fergal Byrne, Brenter IT > > http://inbits.com - Better Living through Thoughtful Technology > http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fergbyrne/ - https://github.com/fergalbyrne > > Founder of Clortex: HTM in Clojure - > https://github.com/nupic-community/clortex > > Author, Real Machine Intelligence with Clortex and NuPIC > Read for free or buy the book at https://leanpub.com/realsmartmachines > > e:[email protected] t:+353 83 4214179 > Join the quest for Machine Intelligence at http://numenta.org > Formerly of Adnet [email protected] http://www.adnet.ie > > > -- Regards Chandan Maruthi
