BSD question

[Matthew Seaman]

On 23/07/2017 12:54, Anna Hall wrote:
> I have read through all your information on your website, but still have a
> question that I am hoping someone can answer for me.
> 
> We currently have open source software with a BSD licence.  The changes we
> want to make are as follows:
> 
> We still want anyone to access, downlaod, change, adapt the software
> however they want.  However, when they want to apply it to a commercial
> setting, then they need to buy a licence from us.  The reason for this is
> that we are putting a lot of man-hours into improving the software.
> 
> Is it possible to maintain our BSD licence, but just include a
> non-commercial clause/ "if you want to use this in a commercial setting,
> please email xxxx for a quote for a licence"

You can't use the BSD license for that as the BSD license makes no
exceptions for either commercial or non-commercial use[*].  However if
you are starting from a BSD licensed code-base -- either one you've
written yourselves or that you've inherited from elsewhere -- then you
can issue a derived work under a different license, so long as you abide
by the original BSD terms which are to acknowledge the copyright of the
original authors and retain the original copyright notices.

It is also possible to release software under a dual license where the
end-user can choose whichever of the licenses suits them best.  MySQL is
a model that you might perhaps like to consider here.  Their community
edition is available under the GPL, but they also have a commercially
licensed variant.

Your situation is by no means unique.  I'd advise you to study other
Open Source projects that are the commercial property of a person or
company and look at how they monetize their work.  A fairly standard
approach is to offer the software itself freely available as open
source, but sell support contracts, consultancy, training and other
peripheral services.  (Sometimes a website will feature pages and pages
of advertisements and enticements towards paying for services with only
a very small and obscure link to where the source code may be obtained.
That's usually not a particularly encouraging sign, as it raises the
suspicion that the overbearing sales tactics are a reflection of lack of
added value in the support offering.)

Finally, seek qualified legal advice before trying to modify or change
license terms.  Getting it wrong can prove ruinously expensive.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

[*] This is standard for Open Source Licenses.


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