this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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TLDR: Companies should be required to pay developers for any open source software they use.

He imagines a simple yearly compliance process that gets companies all the rights they need to use Post-Open software. And they'd fund developers who would be encouraged to write software that's usable by the common person, as opposed to technical experts.

It's an interesting concept, but I don't really see any feasible means to get this to kick off.

What are your thoughts on it?

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[–] actual_patience 2 points 10 months ago

If current licenses have the problem that big companies just ignore the terms set out in the license, I wouldn't imagine making a new sort of license with different terms like "big companies have to pay to get the benefit of using Pots-Open Source software" is really going to work.

It's more that they avoid the spirit of the licensing, not the terms (except Red Hat of course).

I suppose you can split this into two separate arguments:

  • Swap from licenses to more enforceable contracts

  • Have companies pay open source devs