About Protect Open Source

Corporate greed is the leading cause of a dying FOSS. In a world where open source fuels innocation, creators often face a tough choice: Share their work freely or protect it from corporate exploitation.

While open source is built on the idea of community and (often) unpaid contribution, large corporations often take advantage of this openness, making bank off the software that was written with no compensation involved at all.

That’s why Protect Open Source was created. Founded solo by Jacob Leuthardt, Protect Open Source exists to address this imbalance. I believe in safeguarding the rights of open source creators while maintaining the collaborative spirit that drives the community forward. That’s why I’m creating tools and frameworks, like the Open Source Creator’s Share License (OSCSL), to ensure developers stay in control of how their work is used when it comes to commercialization.

The Open Source Creator’s Share License (OSCSL) is a software License written by Jacob Leuthardt with the main purpose of adding a better way of commercialization to open source projects.

The problem is, a lot of people who contribute to or run open source projects want to, or at least the option to, commercialize the project if it blows up. But, most Licenses restrict how a project can be used commercially to two extremes: No commercial, or completely free commercial.

However, a lot of creators don’t want big companies to take their project and sell it, but do want smaller companies or individual creators to have the right to sell it. Even if they just want to use it only for themselves commercially, Licenses with NC stipulations restrict even the creator from commercializing the product.

That’s where the Open Source Creator’s Share License comes in. OSCSL limits who, and the ways they can use, your project without completely restricting commercialization. This protects the authors, while also allowing others in the community, or companies, to sell it. This is done in three parts:

1. Make people wanting to sell the software or use it as the main focus in a product ask the creator(s) first (the Consent Stipulation)
2. Allow the creator(s) to commercialize the software without restriction
3. Optionally, completely stop large companies from selling the software. (OSCSL-B-**)

OSCSL-B is a slightly modified version of the license that will legally stop companies from selling your project in any way. Even though the consent stipulation would allow you to tell the large company trying to use your software “No”, it provides better defined legal protections for those who absolutely do not want a large company to sell their work.

So in total, the stipulations for OSCSL are:

• Attribution (BY): All authors must be credited for their work, commercially used or not.
• Share-Alike (SA): Derivitives of the original software must be shared under the same OSCSL License.
• Commercial Use (CU): You are not allowed to sell this software in any way unless
  1. You ask the author(s) first with the provided e-mail
  2. You are the author
• No Warranty (NW): This software has zero warranty attached to it, creators are not liable for any damage caused by the software.

And the stipulations for OSCSL-B are:

• Attribution (BY): All authors must be credited for their work, commercially used or not.
• Share-Alike (SA): Derivitives of the original software must be shared under the same OSCSL License.
• Commercial Use (CU): You are not allowed to sell this software in any way unless
  1. You ask the author(s) first with the provided e-mail AND You are an individual, or part of an orginazation containing equal to or less than 1,500 employees or an organization collecting equal to OR less than $1.5M USD per year. Should you pass either threshold, you are required to give notice to the authors, who can tell you to either stop selling or continue selling.
  2. You are the author
• No Warranty (NW): This software has zero warranty attached to it, creators are not liable for any damage caused by the software.

In summary, the Open Source Creator’s Share License is a license meant to be an in-between for no-commercial licenses, and free commercial licenses, while keeping the authors in control of who sells their software.