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BSL and Fair Source (Hybrid Models)
Modern software companies increasingly use hybrid licences such as the Business Source Licence (BSL) or Fair Source to protect themselves against the dominance of cloud providers, while keeping their code open to users.
Core Concept
These licences are not open source licences according to the OSI, as they restrict usage (e.g. prohibiting commercial use as a managed service). They often include a change clause: after a defined period (e.g. 4 years), the licence automatically converts to a genuine open source licence (e.g. Apache 2.0).
Assessment
- For organisations: Provides protection for the business model. Users can read the code and self-host, but competitors cannot offer it as a direct cloud service.
- For users: Greater transparency than proprietary software, but risk of vendor dependency (lock-in risk during the growth phase).