A discussion of hybrid open source and proprietary licensing models.

["David Christie" <dc AT samizdat.org>]

Someone on the CC Licenses list, where I first posted this, suggested it 
might also be relevant to the CC Bizcom list readership:

https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/cc-licenses/2005-May/002272.html

I'm posting a link to it rather than cross-posting the original text because 
there has already been some useful discussion of it on the CC Licenses list.

I can see from the Bizcom archives that there have been some related 
discussions re: variants of open source software licenses that retain some 
commercial rights for the author. The CopyFlex license that inspired the 
list seems like a very interesting way to approach that problem.

I particularly like the way CopyFlex, unlike my Share-revenues idea, 
qualifies as open source under the OSI Open Source Definition. At least I 
assume it would, since it has properties midway between BSD and GPL, both of 
which do. Unless I'm missing something? OSD compatibility, and OSI 
certification, seem like important advantages if the goal is to tap into the 
open source development community's energy and methodology (and I think 
that's the goal).