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I created Video Hub App which is MIT License
https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App
I also sell it for $5 and have sold just over 5,000 copies last month (5 years old app). Importantly, $3.50 of every purchase goes to a cost-effective charity, GiveWell recommended Against Malaria Foundation (see website for details).
https://videohubapp.com/
https://github.com/metafizzy/isotope
Does the commercial license use a different repo?
I recently ran across the the license for Dragonfly [1] which has some restrictions (rights reserved), but 5 years after the license date the license switches to Apache 2.0. Basically a timed-limited rights reservation. I don't hate it. I might even contribute to such a project for free.
I would consider something like this: When I release code, it's rights reserved for 5 years, then open-source (and this baked into an irrevocable license). Anyone may use the software for non-commercial purposes. Anyone may contribute, those who contribute will be granted permission for commercial use if I deem their contributions significant enough. Anyone may distribute the software under these terms.
If such a model became popular, I have a hard time imagining it could make things any worse. It might even accelerate open-source development. You might say, "but it's not open-source", fair enough, but we can view it as open-source contribution with a delay. For example, if this model became wildely popular this year, and we saw great progress with this model, then come 2028 we would be flooded with new open-source software and ultimately might be better off than it would have been without this model.
(And this whole thing makes me rethink copyright and patents and how much they really contribute to society. Perhaps they should be shortened?)
[1]: https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/blob/main/LICENSE.m...
Great article! I started https://polar.sh to help maintainers get more funding + insights about their customers & their needs. Long-term building tooling for managing all up sold services and customer management.
I definitely agree that 1) we need to convert companies more, but 2) it won’t happen with the traditional sponsorship/donations model. They need to be able to quantify the value of their investments.
With the first version of Polar, we aim to provide that while giving maintainers better insight on needs & funding to develop efforts that align with their vision.