Company
Date Published
Author
Justin Colannino
Word count
525
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

In recent years, several "single source" open source companies have shifted from Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved licenses to "source available" licenses due to challenges posed by cloud infrastructure developments. These companies, such as Confluent, MongoDB, and Redis Labs, initially used open-core or dual-licensing models to generate revenue by offering additional services or commercial licenses alongside their free and open source software. However, the rise of cloud providers has allowed these providers to use open source licenses to create competing services, thereby threatening the revenue streams of the original companies. In response, companies have adopted "source available" licenses that impose restrictions on cloud providers to prevent them from building services directly from the companies' code. This shift aims to protect their business while continuing to leverage the widespread availability of their software to attract future customers. Developers are advised to consider project ownership and contributor diversity when choosing open source dependencies, as projects with a non-profit home and multiple significant contributors are less likely to relicense compared to those dominated by a single for-profit company.