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Comment by Pet_Ant | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to see source trusts like the code is given to an authority that will make it Apache/MIT/BSD if conditions are met. Let the creators draw the line in the sand. Company goes bankrupt. No new release for 3 years. Or maybe always release the code from 5 years commit by commit. Just to prevent abandonware and lost sources. Should be sufficient to preserve commercial viability.

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The Business Source License more or less achieves this.

> The Business Source License more or less achieves this.

The Business Source License is not an open source license.

Sources:

> https://mariadb.com/bsl11/

> https://spdx.org/licenses/BUSL-1.1.html

"The Business Source License (this document, or the “License”) is not an Open Source license. However, the Licensed Work will eventually be made available under an Open Source License, as stated in this License."

You seem to be missing the whole point of this thread. They wanted something like a "source trust". The BSL provides something like that, as long as you aren't worried about people breaking the license without concern for legal consequence.

The code eventually becomes open source after certain criteria are met. No one in this thread claimed that BSL-licensed code is immediately open source.

GitLab does something like that if I'm not mistaken.

Features start in the most expensive tier, then tricke down and end up in OSS.

Gitlab was a VC backed firm.

Code disclosure if company goes bankrupt triggers a counter-incentive: Your customers has a stake in you going bankrupt.

In that line of logic your competition has a new incentive for you to NOT go bankrupt (perhaps buy your company before that happens?)

Why would your customers want you to stop maintaining the software they use and have already paid for?

If you're of sufficient size that you are a risk to a company's bottom line, I've got news for you: they probably already have a stake in you going bankrupt. Companies buy insurance against their business partners going bankrupt all the time. One such means is called a credit default swap (CDS).

...if your customers believe that maintaining your code can be done more cost-effectively than the rates you're currently charging them.

(and note that cost-effectiveness != cost -- they're correlated, but not the same)

Are you looking for something like the business source license?

https://mariadb.com/bsl-faq-mariadb/

And how would you handle the security aspects of not having the source code?

For instance, not all companies are happy with third parties that have access to their data, either directly or indirectly.

Isn't that the deal with QT?

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