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submitted 4 days ago by jaypatelani@lemmy.ml to c/foss@beehaw.org
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[-] rnd@lemmy.4d2.org 1 points 3 days ago

Sounds interesting, although I feel like point 2 is a bit too restrictive.

Right now, it seems to require public availability of the program's source code, even if the program is only used internally. This, in my opinion, is too restrictive and would make organizations not want to touch software under this license, even if they are friendly to the FOSS community and want to make the end result open source. After all, during internal development, they might be experimenting with lots of different programs/libraries to find the one that best suits their needs, modifying them if necessary, then tossing out whichever one isn't required. Having to then also put out a public repository during that step feels like too much (and could also hurt secrecy -- competitors could see "oh, this company is now publishing a source code for libfoo, they must be working on some foo-related project).

Perhaps a better rule would be something like "if you deploy the program, you must make the source code available in such a way that anyone who has the technical capability and legal right to use the program can also receive its source code". This would, of course, mean that while the program is being developed and tested internally, the source code likewise only needs to be shared internally, but when it becomes available publicly, the source code has to likewise be available to any potential user (meaning that someone doesn't need to, say, buy or own a device running some firmware to get its source code, like with GPL).

[-] jaypatelani@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

Being too restrictive is international. Also I think if organisation using internally it's difficult to enforce this specific term but it will keep them away of they are not intentional about releasing source code.

this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
8 points (83.3% liked)

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