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Is there a License that requires the user to donate if they make revenue? (lemmy.giftedmc.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I tried a couple license finders and I even looked into the OSI database but I could not find a license that works pretty much like agpl but requiring payment (combined 1% of revenue per month, spread evenly over all FOSS software, if applicable) if one of these is true:

the downstream user makes revenue (as in "is a company" or gets donations)
the downstream distributor is connected to a commercial user (e.g. to exclude google from making a non profit to circumvent this license)

I ask this because of the backdoor in xz and the obviously rotten situation in billion dollar companies not kicking their fair share back to the people providing this stuff.

So, if something similar exists, feel free to let me know.

Thanks for reading and have a good one.

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[–] merthyr1831 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's not FOSS. All you'll do is guarantee that no one will contribute to your project and will just wait for someone else to make their own FOSS version, or encourage corporations to write their own version in-house.

I think we're far from solutions to ensuring money from FOSS goes to contributors, but moving to licenses that enforce it at the expense of the projects themselves is naïve at best

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

By now I get that FOSS mostly implies free work for corporations. I‘ll just go with agpl to ensure they get nothing from my work.

[–] merthyr1831 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Sure. The point being though that companies will explicitly avoid projects that expect payment except for very specific circumstances.

And, as much as corporations get the work for "free", so do other free software projects who will also explicitly avoid anything that adds further costs to their own work.

If you're that afraid of someone getting your software for free then you might as well make your project proprietary because you're misunderstanding, fundamentally, how FOSS works.

[–] chiliedogg 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I use GQIS and OSM professionally. My company also contributes to both projects. You WANT companies to adopt free software because they'll put resources into improving it, which improves it for everyone.

Are they doing it to make money? Yep.

But it's good for the product and every user of the product. It allows hobbysts and individual users to benefit from corporate resources without ever giving the corporations money or data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I get it. My point was that profitseeking and charity dont mix well imo.

[–] chiliedogg 3 points 7 months ago

Open Source software isn't charity. It's a group effort that anyone can use.