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Last active May 20, 2021 23:28
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stackmuncher_license_selection.md

Thoughts on license selection for StackMuncher

Objectives

  • Complete transparency of operation by making all STM code open source: data use, processing, privacy, security
  • Reducing competition from smarter and more resourceful entities
  • Enabling the community to contribute
  • Building a sustainable business with a single priority: delivering value to the community

Contenders

  • OSL 3.0
  • LGPL 3.0
  • GPL 3.0
  • AGPL 3.0

Reasoning

AGPL is the only license that enforces radical transparency and makes it impossible for a new entrant to exploit the prior work without opening up any value-adds to the community.

CLA

It is important for business sustainability to have the full copyright assigned to the business to allow for future license changes otherwise we will be stuck with AGPL forever. This allows the company to become "evil" at some point and move to a less open or even proprietary license. It may or may not matter to the community and can be mitigated by other means like data ownership allowing for a fork of not only the code, but the business itself.

Resources

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