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Comment by echelon

7 months ago

> This is not open source

OSI purism is deleterious and has led to industry capture.

Non-viral open source is simply a license for hyperscalers to take advantage. To co-opt offerings and make hundreds of millions without giving anything back.

We need more "fair source" licensing to support sustainable engineering that rewards the small ICs rather than mega conglomerate corporations with multi-trillion dollar market caps. The same companies that are destroying the open web.

This license isn't even that protective of the authors. It just asks for credit if you pass a MAU/ARR threshold. They should honestly ask for money if you hit those thresholds and should blacklist the Mag7 from usage altogether.

The resources put into building this are significant and they're giving it to you for free. We should applaud it.

4 comments

echelon

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teiferer  7 months ago

> small ICs

The majority of open source code is contributed by companies, typically very large corporations. The thought of the open source ecosystem being largely carried by lone hobbyist contributors in their spare time after work is a myth. There are such folks (heck I'm one of them) and they are appreciated and important, but their perception far exceeds their real role in the open source ecosystem.

  • wredcoll  7 months ago

    I've heard people go back and fortg on this before but you seem pretty certain about it, can you share some stats so I can see also?

Intermernet  7 months ago

Yep, awesome stuff. Call it "fair source" if you want to. Don't call it open source. I'm an absolutist about very few things, but the definition of open source is one of them. Every bit of variation given in the definition is a win for those who have ulterior motives for polluting the definition. Open source isn't a vague concept, it's a defined term with a legally accepted meaning. Very much like "fair use". It's dangerous to allow this definition to be altered. OpenAI (A deliberate misnomer if ever there was one) and friends would really love to co-opt the term.