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TRADUCTION DE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_open-source_software


{{distinguish|Open-source_software#Business applications{{!}}Business applications of open-source software}}
<!-- lead is transcluded in [[Open-source software#Funding]] -->
Les [[Open-source software|logiciels Open Source]] sont largement utilisés aussi bien comme des solutions indépendante que comme des composants de solutions non Open Source. De nombreux

'''''[[independent software vendor]]s (ISVs), [[value-added reseller]]s (VARs), and hardware [[vendor]]s ([[Original equipment manufacturer|OEM]]s or [[Original design manufacturer|ODM]]s)'''''

utilisent des [[Software framework|infrastructures Open Source]], des modules, et des [[Library (computing)|librairies]] au sein de leurs solutions propriétaires, commerciales, et leurs services<ref name="Popp1">{{cite book | last1 = Popp | first1 = Dr. Karl Michael | last2 = Meyer | first2 = Ralf | title = Profit from Software Ecosystems: Business Models, Ecosystems and Partnerships in the Software Industry | year = 2010 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i1VGDLCMyKAC | publisher = Books on Demand | location = Norderstedt, Germany | isbn = 9783839169834}}</ref>

Du point de vue du consommateur, la possibilité de faire usage d'une technologie Open Source From a customer's perspective, the ability to use open technology under standard commercial terms and support is valuable. They are willing to pay for the legal protection (e.g., indemnification from copyright or patent infringement), "commercial-grade QA", and professional support/training/consulting that are typical of commercial software, while also receiving the benefits of fine-grained control and lack of lock-in that comes with open-source.</onlyinclude>

== Funding ==

Much unlike proprietary off-the-shelf software that come with restrictive licenses, open-source software is distributed freely, through the web and in physical media. Because creators cannot require each user to pay a license fee to fund development this way, a number of alternative development funding models have emerged.

An example of those funding models is when bespoke software is developed as a consulting project for one or more customers who request it. These customers pay developers to have this software developed according to their own needs and they could also closely direct the developers' work. If both parties agree, the resulting software could then be publicly released with an open-source license in order to allow subsequent adoption by other parties. That agreement could reduce the costs paid by the clients while the original developers (or independent consultants) can then charge for training, installation, [[technical support]], or further customization if and when more interested customers would choose to use it after the initial release.

There also exist [[stipend]]s to support the development of open source software, such as [[Google]]'s [[Summer of Code]].<ref name="LinSOC">{{cite web | title = Google's Summer of Code concludes | first = Bruce | last = Byfield | date= 21 September 2005 | url = https://www.linux.com/news/googles-summer-code-concludes | quote = DiBona said that the SOC was designed to benefit everyone involved in it. Students had the chance to work on real projects, rather than academic ones, and to get paid while gaining experience and making contacts. FOSS projects benefited from getting new code and having the chance to recruit new developers. | publisher = [[linux.com]] | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref>

Another approach to funding is to provide the software freely, but sell licenses to proprietary add-ons such as data libraries. For instance, an open-source [[computer-aided design|CAD]] program may require parts libraries which are sold on a subscription or flat-fee basis. Open-source software can also promote the sale of specialized hardware that it interoperates with, some example cases being the [[Asterisk (PBX)|Asterisk]] telephony software developed by PC-telephony hardware manufacturer [[Digium]] and the [[Robot Operating System]] (ROS) robotics platform by Willow Garage and Stanford AI Labs. Many open source software projects have begun as research projects within universities, as personal projects of students or professors, or as tools to aid scientific research. The influence of universities and research institutions on open-source shows in the number of projects named after their host institutions, such as [[BSD Unix]], [[CMU Common Lisp]], or the [[NCSA HTTPd]] which evolved into [[Apache Web server|Apache]].

Companies may employ developers to work on open-source projects that are useful to the company's infrastructure: in this case, it is developed not as a product to be sold but as a sort of shared public utility. A local bug-fix or solution to a software problem, written by a developer either at a company's request or to make his/her own job easier, can be released as an open-source contribution without costing the company anything.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Holtgrewe | first = Ursula | title = Articulating the Speed(s) of the Internet: The Case of Open Source/Free Software | journal = [[Time & Society]] | date = March 2004 | volume = 13 | pages = 129–146 | doi = 10.1177/0961463X04040750}}</ref> A larger project such as the Linux kernel may have contributors from dozens of companies which use and depend upon it, as well as hobbyist and research developers.

A new funding approach for open-source projects is [[crowdfunding]], organized over web platforms like [[Kickstarter]], [[Indiegogo]], or [[Bountysource]].<ref name="yahoofinance">{{cite web | url = https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bountysource-raises-1-1-million-130000440.html | title = Bountysource Raises $1.1 Million for the First Crowdfunding Platform for Open-Source Software Projects | website = Yahoo Finance | publisher = Marketwired | date = 16 July 2013 | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref>

== Challenges ==
{{cleanup merge|Commercial open-source applications}}
{{refimprove section|date=December 2013}}
[[Open-source software]] can be sold and used in general [[Commerce|commercially]]. Also, commercial open-source applications have been a part of the [[software industry]] for some time.<ref name="Popp1"/><ref>{{cite web | url = http://timreview.ca/article/229 | title = F/LOSS is Commercial Software | date = February 2009 | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | first = David A. | last = Wheeler | website = Technology Innovation Management Review | publisher = Talent First Network}}</ref> While commercialization or funding of open-source software projects is possible, it is considered challenging.<ref name="LAS300RMS">{{cite AV media | first = Richard | last = Stallman | date = 11 March 2012 | title = Richard Stallman (S20E10) | type = Podcast | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=radmjL5OIaA&t=0h53m46s | access-date = 18 June 2016 | time = 0:53:46 | quote = I'm not going to claim that I got a way to make it easier to raise money to pay people who write free software. We all know, that to some extent there are ways to do that, but we all know that they are limited, they are not as broad as we would like. | publisher = [[Jupiter Broadcasting]] | series = The Linux Action Show}}</ref>

Since several [[open-source license]]s stipulate that authors of derivative works must distribute them under an open-source ([[copyleft]]) license, ISVs and VARs have to develop new legal and technical mechanisms to foster their commercial goals,<ref name="Popp2">{{cite book | first = Dr. Karl Michael | last = Popp | title = Best Practices for commercial use of open source software | year = 2015 | publisher = Books on Demand | location = Norderstedt, Germany | isbn = 978-3738619096}}</ref> as many traditional mechanisms are not directly applicable anymore.

Traditional business wisdom suggests that a company's methods, assets, and intellectual properties should remain concealed from market competitors ([[trade secret]]) as long as possible to maximize the profitable commercialization time of a new product.<ref>{{Cite journal | first = S. | last = Donovan | title = Patent, copyright and trade secret protection for software | journal = IEEE Potentials | volume = 13 | issue = 3 | publication-date = 1994 | page = 20 | quote = Essentially there are only three ways to protect computer software under the law: patent it, register a copyright for it, or keep it as a trade secret. | date = 6 August 2002 | issn = 0278-6648 | doi = 10.1109/45.310923}}</ref> Open-source software development minimizes the effectiveness of this tactic; development of the product is usually performed in view of the public, allowing competing projects or [[Clone (computing)|clones]] to incorporate new features or improvements as soon as the public code repository is updated, as permitted by most open-source licenses. Also in the computer hardware domain, a hardware producer who provides free and open software drivers reveals the knowledge about hardware implementation details to competitors, who might use this knowledge to catch up.

Therefore, there is considerable debate about whether vendors can make a sustainable business from an open-source strategy. In terms of a traditional software company, this is probably the wrong question to ask. Looking at the landscape of open source applications, many of the larger ones are sponsored (and largely written) by system companies such as [[IBM]] who may not have an objective of software license revenues. Other software companies, such as Oracle and Google, have sponsored or delivered significant open-source code bases. These firms' motivation tends to be more strategic, in the sense that they are trying to change the rules of a marketplace and reduce the influence of vendors such as Microsoft. Smaller vendors doing open-source work may be less concerned with immediate revenue growth than developing a large and loyal community, which may be the basis of a corporate valuation at merger time.

== Approaches ==
A variety of open-source compatible business approaches have gained prominence in recent years{{According to whom|date=October 2013}}; notable examples include [[dual licensing]], [[software as a service]], not charging for the software but for services, [[freemium]], donation-based funding, [[crowdfunding]], and [[crowdsourcing]].

There are several different types of [[business model]]s for making [[Profit (economics)|profit]] using [[open-source software]] (OSS) or [[funding]] the creation. Below are existing and legal commercial business approaches in context of open-source software and open-source licenses.<ref name="Popp2"/> The acceptance of these approaches varies; some of these approaches are recommended (like selling services), others are accepted, while still others are considered controversial or even unethical by the open-source community. The underlying objective of these [[business model]]s is to harness the size and international scope of the [[open-source community]] (typically more than an order of magnitude larger than what would be achieved with [[closed-source]] models) for a sustainable commercial venture.{{citation needed|date=October 2013}} The vast majority of commercial open-source companies experience a conversion ratio (as measured by the percentage of downloaders who buy something) well below 1%, so low-cost and highly-scalable marketing and sales functions are key to these firms' profitability.{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}

=== Dual-licensing ===
{{main article|Multi-licensing}}
[[Dual licensing]] offers the software under an [[open-source license]] but also under separate proprietary license terms. The proprietary version can be sold to finance the continued development of the free open-source version.<ref name="ReferenceC">{{cite book | first = Jean | last = Solatan | title = Advances in software economics: A reader on business models and Partner Ecosystems in the software industry | year = 2011 | publisher = BOD | location = Norderstedt, Germany | isbn = 978-3-8448-0405-8}}</ref> Customers can be attracted to a no-cost and open-source edition, then be part of an [[Upselling|up-sell]] to a commercial enterprise edition. Further, customers will learn of open-source software in a company's portfolio and offerings but generate business in other proprietary products and solutions, including commercial [[technical support]] contracts and services. A popular example is [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]]'s [[MySQL]] [[database]] which is dual-licensed under a commercial proprietary license as also under the [[GPLv2]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/oem/#5 | title = Commercial License for OEMs, ISVs and VARs | at = Q4: What is Oracle's dual license model for MySQL software? | website = MySQL.com | publisher = [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] | date = July 2010 | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | quote = Oracle makes its MySQL database server and MySQL Client Libraries available under both the GPL and a commercial license. As a result, developers who use or distribute open source applications under the GPL can use the GPL-licensed MySQL software, and OEMs, ISVs and VARs that do not want to combine or distribute the MySQL software with their own commercial software under a GPL license can purchase a commercial license.}}</ref> Another example is the [[Sleepycat License]]. [[Flask (web framework)|Flask]] developer Armin Ronacher stated that the [[Affero General Public License|AGPL]]v3 was a "terrible success" as "vehicle for dual commercial licensing" and noted that [[MongoDB]], [[RethinkDB]], [[OpenERP]], [[SugarCRM]] as well as [[WURFL]] utilizing the license for this purpose.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2013/7/23/licensing/ | title = Licensing in a Post Copyright World | date = 23 July 2013 | first = Armin | last = Ronacher | at = What Changed in 2007 | website = Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | quote = The AGPLv3 was a terrible success, especially among the startup community that found the perfect base license to make dual licensing with a commercial license feasible. MongoDB, RethinkDB, OpenERP, SugarCRM as well as WURFL all now utilize the AGPLv3 as a vehicle for dual commercial licensing. The AGPLv3 makes that generally easy to accomplish as the original copyright author has the rights to make a commercial license possible but nobody who receives the sourcecode itself through the APLv3 inherits that right. I am not sure if that was the intended use of the license, but that's at least what it's definitely being used for now.}}</ref>

=== Selling professional services ===

The [[financial return]] of [[cost]]s on open-source software can also come from selling [[Service (economics)|services]], such as training, [[technical support]], or [[Information technology consulting|consulting]], rather than the software itself.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/79341.html | title = FOSS in the Enterprise: To Pay or Not to Pay? | date = 5 November 2013 | first = Jack M. | last = Germain | website = LinuxInsider | publisher = ECT News Network, Inc. | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cio.com/article/2388344/open-source-tools/6-reasons-to-pay-for-open-source-software.html | title = 6 Reasons to Pay for Open Source Software | date = 13 February 2013 | first = Paul | last = Rubens | website = CIO | publisher = CXO Media Inc. | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | quote = Open source software is free to download, modify and use, but that doesn't mean it's not worth paying for sometimes. If you're using open source software in a commercial, enterprise capacity, here are six reasons why you should pay for free software.}}</ref>

Another possibility is offering open-source software in [[source code]] form only, while providing [[executable]] binaries to paying customers only, offering the commercial service of [[compiling]] and [[package (package management system)|packaging]] of the software. Also, providing goods like physical [[Data storage device|installation media]] (e.g., [[DVD]]s) can be a commercial service.

Open-source companies using this business model successfully are for instance [[RedHat]] and [[IBM]];<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.wired.com/2012/03/red-hat/ | title = Red Hat Becomes Open Source’s First $1 Billion Baby | first = Robert | last = McMillan | date = 28 March 2012 | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | publisher = [[Wired (website)|Wired]] | quote = Other companies have made big money selling Linux — Intel, IBM, Dell, and others have used it as a way to sell hardware and support services — but Red Hat has managed the tricky business of building a software platform that big businesses will pay for.}}</ref> a more specialized example is that of [[Revolution Analytics]].

=== Selling of branded merchandise ===
Some open-source organizations such as the [[Mozilla Foundation]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.mozillazine.org/articles/article4484.html | title = Mozilla Foundation Open Letter Orders Unofficial Mozilla Merchandise Sellers to Stop, Legal Action Hinted | first = Gervase | last = Markham | date = 16 March 2004 | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | website = MozillaZine}}</ref> and the [[Wikimedia Foundation]]<ref>{{cite web | url = https://store.wikimedia.org/ | title = Wikipedia Store | publisher = Wikimedia Foundation | year = 2016 | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref> sell branded merchandise articles like [[t-shirt]]s and coffee mugs. This can be also seen as an additional service provided to the [[user community]].

=== Selling of certificates and trademark use ===
{{main article|Franchising}}
Another financing approach is innovated by [[Moodle]], an open source [[learning management system]] and community platform.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://opensource.com/education/14/10/open-access-learning-moodle | title = Moodle will always be an open source project | date = 6 October 2014 | first = Samantha | last = Gartner | website = opensource.com | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/cs-moodle | title = Moodle: a case study in sustainability | date = 22 January 2014 | publication-date = 5 June 2007 | first = Martin | last = Dougiamas | website = OSS Watch | publisher = University of Oxford | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref> The business model revolves around a network of commercial partners<ref>{{cite web | url = http://moodle.com/partners/about/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140722023159/http://moodle.com/partners/about/ | dead-url = yes | archive-date = 22 July 2014 | title = How do the Moodle Partners work? | year = 2012 | website = Moodle | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref> who are certificated and therefore authorised to use the Moodle [[Trademark|name]] and [[logo]],<ref>{{cite web | url = https://moodle.com/trademarks/ | title = The Moodle Trademark | year = 2016 | website = Moodle | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref> and in turn provide a proportion of revenue to the Moodle Trust, which funds core development.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/27/blackboard-buys-moodlerooms-creates-open-source-division | title = Blackboard's Open-Source Pivot | website = Inside Higher Ed | date = 27 March 2012 | first = Steve | last = Kolowich | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref>

=== Selling software as a service===
Selling [[subscription business model|subscriptions]] for online accounts and server access to customers is a way of making profit based on open-source software. Also, combining desktop software with a service, called [[software plus services]]. Providing [[cloud computing]] services or [[software as a service]] (SaaS) without the release of the open-source software itself, neither in binary nor in source form, conforms with most open-source licenses (with exception of the [[Affero General Public License|AGPL]]).

Because of its lack of software freedoms, [[Richard Stallman]] calls SaaS "inherently bad" while acknowledging its legality.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://gigaom.com/2013/08/06/hactivist-richard-stallman-takes-on-proprietary-software-saas-and-open-source/ | title = Hacktivist Richard Stallman takes on proprietary software, SaaS and open source | first = Rani | last = Molla | date = 6 August 2013 | website = Gigaom | publisher = Knowingly, Inc. | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | quote = He (...) claims software as a service (SaaS) is inherently bad because your information goes through a server beyond your control and that server can add additional software when it likes.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman | title = Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman | first = Bobbie | last = Johnson | publisher = [[The Guardian]] | date = 29 September 2008 | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | quote = Web-based programs like Google's Gmail will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time, according to the free software campaigner}}</ref> The FSF called the [[server-side]] use-case without release of the source-code the "[[Application service provider|ASP]] loophole in the GPLv2" and encourage therefore the use of the [[Affero General Public License]] which plugged this hole in 2002.<ref name="fsf">{{cite web | url = https://www.gnu.org/licenses/index.html | title = Licenses | at = The GNU Affero General Public License | publisher = Free Software Foundation | website = GNU Project | accessdate = 18 June 2016 | quote = We recommend that people consider using the GNU AGPL for any software which will commonly be run over a network.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://opensource.org/node/152 | title = GNU Affero GPL version 3 and the "ASP loophole" | date = 7 June 2007 | first = Michael | last = Tiemann | publisher = [[Open Source Initiative]] | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref> In 2007 the FSF contemplated including the special provision of AGPLv1 into [[GPLv3]] but ultimately decided to keep the licenses separate.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SeparateAffero | title = Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses | at = Why did you decide to write the GNU Affero GPLv3 as a separate license? | date = 26 May 2016 | website = GNU Project | publisher = [[Free Software Foundation]] | accessdate = 18 June 2016}}</ref>

=== Partnership with funding organizations ===
Other financial situations include partnerships with other companies. [[Governments]], [[universities]], companies, and non-governmental organizations may develop internally or hire a contractor for custom in-house modifications, then release that code under an open-source license. Some organizations support the development of open-source software by [[grants]] or [[stipend]]s, like [[Google|Google's]] [[Summer of Code]] initiative founded in 2005.<ref name="LinSOC"/>

=== Voluntary donations ===
{{main article|Donationware}}
Also, there were experiments by Independent developers to fund development of open-source software [[donation]]-driven directly by the users, e.g., with the [[Illumination Software Creator]] in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/06/help-linux-tycoon-more-go-open-source |publisher=OMGUbuntu |first=Joey-Elijah |last=Sneddon |date=2012-06-01 |accessdate=2013-08-08 |title=Will You Help Change The Way Open-Source Apps are Funded? |quote=Lunduke is pledging to open-source and distribute his portfolio of hitherto paid software – which includes the Linux distro management simulator Linux Tycoon - for free, under the GPL, if he can reach a donation-driven funding goal of $4000/m. Reaching this goal, Lunduke says, 'will provide proof for others, who would also like to move their software businesses to be open source, that it is doable.'}}</ref> From 2011 to 2016 [[SourceForge]] allowed users to donate to hosted projects that opted to accept donations.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://sourceforge.net/p/forge/documentation/Donations/?version=1 | date = 4 March 2011 | title = SourceForge.net Donation System | first = Elizabeth | last = Naramore | website = [[SourceForge]] | publisher = Slashdot Media | access-date = 16 October 2017 }}</ref>{{Update inline|?=yes|reason=SourceForge no longer uses this system, perhaps a better example could be used|date=October 2017}} Internet [[micro-payment]]s systems like [[PayPal]], [[flattr]], and [[Bitcoin]] help this approach.

Larger donation campaigns also exist. In 2004 the [[Mozilla Foundation]] carried out a fundraising campaign to support the launch of the [[Firefox]] 1.0 [[web browser]]. It placed a two-page ad in the December 16 edition of the ''[[New York Times]]'' listing the names of the thousands who had donated.<ref name="Mozilla Foundation">{{cite web|url=http://www-archive.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-12-15.html |title=Mozilla Foundation Places Two-Page Advocacy Ad in the New York Times |accessdate=June 15, 2010 |author=Mozilla Foundation |date=December 15, 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.cnet.com/New-York-Times-runs-Firefox-ad/2100-1032_3-5493774.html|title=New York Times runs Firefox ad|date=2004-12-16 |accessdate=2013-08-12|first=Ingrid |last=Marson |quote=Fans of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser who funded an advertisement in The New York Times will finally get to see their names in print on Thursday.|publisher=[[cnet.com]]}}</ref>

=== Bounty driven development ===
{{main article|Open-source bounty}}
The users of a particular software artifact may come together and pool money into an [[open-source bounty]] for the implementation of a desired feature or functionality. Offering [[bounty (reward)|bounties]] as funding has existed for some time. For instance, [[Bountysource]] is a web platform which has offered this funding model for open source software since 2003.

Another bounty source is companies or foundations that set up bounty programs for implemented features or bugfixes in open-source software relevant to them. For instance, [[Mozilla Foundation|Mozilla]] has been paying and funding freelance open-source programmers for [[security bug]] hunting and fixing since 2004.<ref>{{citation|title=Mozilla to pay bounty on bugs|url=http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9255|author=Leyden, John|publisher=[[The Register]] |date=2004-08-03 |accessdate=2013-08-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-7350_3-5802411.html |title=Offering a bounty for security bugs |last=Evers |first=Joris |date=July 25, 2005 |website=[[CNET]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |accessdate=12 August 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/press/mozilla-2004-08-02.html |title=Mozilla Foundation Announces Security Bug Bounty Program |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=August 2, 2004 |website=[[Mozilla Foundation]] |location=[[Mountain View, California]] |accessdate=2013-08-10}}</ref>

=== Pre-order/crowdfunding/reverse-bounty model ===
A newer funding opportunity for open-source software projects is [[crowdfunding]], which shares similarities with the [[pre-order]] or [[Praenumeration]] business model, as well as the reverse bounty model, typically organized over web platforms like [[Kickstarter]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/open-source-gets-its-own-crowd-funding-site-bounties-included |title=Open source gets its own crowd-funding site, with bounties included - Bountysource is the crowd-funding site the open source community has been waiting for. |first=Bryan |last=Lunduke |date=2013-08-07 |accessdate=2013-08-10 |quote=Many open source projects (from phones to programming tools) have taken to crowd-funding sites (such as Kickstarter and indiegogo) in order to raise the cash needed for large-scale development. And, in some cases, this has worked out quite well.|publisher=networkworld.com}}</ref> [[Indiegogo]],<ref name="mesacrowdfunding"/> or [[Bountysource]]<ref name="yahoofinance"/> (see also [[comparison of crowd funding services]]). One example is the successfully funded Indiegogo campaign in 2013 by Australian programmer Timothy Arceri, who offered to implement an [[OpenGL]] 4.3 extension for the [[Mesa (computer graphics)|Mesa]] library in two weeks for $2,500.<ref name="mesacrowdfunding">{{cite web|url=http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-improve-opengl-support-for-the-linux-graphics-drivers|title=Help improve OpenGL support for the Linux Graphics Drivers |first=Timothy |last=Arceri |date=2013-07-26 |accessdate=2013-08-11 |publisher=[[Indiegogo]] |quote=Helping fund the time for me to become a Mesa contributor and document the experience to make it easier for others to understand where to start with the Mesa codebase. Many people have brought up the idea of crowd sourcing open source driver development. This is a small scale experiment to see if it could actually work.}}</ref> Arceri delivered the OpenGL extension code which was promptly merged upstream, and he later continued his efforts on Mesa with successive crowdfunding campaigns.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTUxMTQ | title = Crowd-Funding Is Back For Another Mesa Extension | first = Michael | last = Larabel | author-link = Michael Larabel | website = [[Phoronix]] | date= 12 November 2013 }}</ref> Later, he found work as an employee in this domain with [[Collabora]] and in 2017 with [[Valve Corporation]].<ref>{{ cite web | url = https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Arceri-Joined-Valve | title = Valve Has Another Linux Graphics Driver Developer Working On Open-Source AMD | website = [[Phoronix]] | first = Michael | last = Larabel | author-link = Michael Larabel | date = 14 February 2017 }}</ref> Another example is the June 2013 [[crowdfunding]] on [[Kickstarter]]<ref name="CDDAcrowdfunding">{{cite web |url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/568375735/cataclysm-dark-days-ahead-dedicated-developer/ |title=Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - Dedicated Developer |work=[[Kickstarter]]|date=22 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://indiestatik.com/2013/06/22/cataclysm-dda-kickstarter/ |title=Multipocalyptic Roguelike Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Turns To Kickstarter |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140401001904/http://indiestatik.com/2013/06/22/cataclysm-dda-kickstarter/ |archivedate=2014-04-01}}</ref> of the [[open source video game]] [[Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead]] which raised the payment of a full-time developer for 3.5 months. [[Patreon]] funding has also become an effective option, as the service gives the option to pay out each month to creators, many of whom intend to develop free and open source software.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.patreon.com/onpon4|title=Julie Marchant is creating libre video games|first=Julie|last=Marchant|website=[[Patreon]]}}</ref>

=== Crowdsourcing ===

[[Crowdsourcing]] is a type of participative online activity in which an individual, an institution, a nonprofit organization, or company proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and number, the voluntary undertaking of a task via a flexible open call. The undertaking of the task, of variable complexity and modularity, and in which the crowd should participate, bringing their work, money, knowledge and/or experience, always entails mutual benefit. The user will receive the satisfaction of a given type of need, be it economic, social recognition, self-esteem, or the development of individual skills, while the crowdsourcer will obtain and use to their advantage that which the user has brought to the venture, whose form will depend on the type of activity undertaken. Cave-ats in pursuing a Crowdsourcing strategy are to induce a substantial market model or incentive<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://dynamic-applications.com/workshops/business-models-for-founders-and-platform-builders/|title=Business Models for Founders, CEOs, and Platform builders.|date=2017-09-29|work=Dynamic Applications|access-date=2017-10-16|language=en-US}}</ref>, and care has to be taken that the whole thing doesn‘t end up in an open source anarchy of adware and spyware plagiates, with a lot of broken solutions, started by people who just wanted to try it out, then gave up early, and a few winners. Popular examples for Crowdsourcing are [[Linux]], [[Google android|Google Android]], the [[Pirate Party]] movement, and Wikipedia.

=== Advertising-supported software ===
In order to commercialize FOSS (free and open-source software), many companies (including [[Google]], [[Mozilla]], and [[Canonical Ltd|Canonical]]) have moved towards an [[economic model]] of [[advertising-supported software]]. For instance, the open-source application [[AdBlock Plus]] gets paid by Google for letting [[whitelist]]ed ''Acceptable Ads'' bypassing the browser ad remover.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neowin.net/news/report-google-paying-adblock-plus-to-not-block-google039s-ads|title=Report: Google paying AdBlock Plus to not block Google's ads |first=John |last=Callaham |date=2013-06-06 |publisher=[[neowin]].com |accessdate=2013-08-13 |quote=Google is paying money to Eyeo, the company behind AdBlock Plus, so that its ads get through the browser ad remover.}}</ref> As another example is [[SourceForge]], an open-source project service provider, has the revenue model of advertising banner sales on their website. In 2006, SourceForge reported quarterly takings of $6.5 million<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sourceforge-quarterly-profit-surges-as-revenue-rises |title=Sourceforge quarterly profit surges as revenue rises|accessdate=2013-08-13 |date=2007-05-24 |publisher=marketwatch.com|quote=Software Corp., late Thursday reported third-quarter net earnings of $6.49 million, or 9 cents a share, up from $997,000, or 2 cents a share, during the year-ago period. Pro forma earnings from continuing operations were $2.1 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with $1.2 million, or 2 cents a share, last year. The Fremont, Calif.-based maker of computer servers and storage systems said revenue for the three months ended April 30 rose to $10.3 million from $7.9 million. Analysts, on average, had forecast a per-share profit of 2 cents on revenue of $12 million.|first=Katherine |last=Hunt}}</ref> and $23 million in 2009.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://ir.corp.sourceforge.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=82629&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1260642&highlight=| title=SourceForge Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2009 Financial Results| deadurl=yes| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603170625/http://ir.corp.sourceforge.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=82629&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1260642&highlight=| archivedate=2015-06-03| df=}}</ref>

=== Selling of optional proprietary extensions ===
{{main article|Open core}}
Some companies sell proprietary but optional extensions, modules, [[Plug-in (computing)|plugins]] or [[Browser extension|add-ons]] to an open-source software product. This can be a "license conform" approach with many open-source licenses if done technically sufficiently carefully. For instance, mixing proprietary code and open-source licensed code in [[Statically linked library|statically linked libraries]]<ref name="lgp">{{cite web|url=http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/02/08/our-new-way-to-meet-the-lgpl/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220234542/http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/02/08/our-new-way-to-meet-the-lgpl/|archivedate=2009-02-20 |title=Our new way to meet the LGPL |date=2009-02-08|accessdate=2011-03-09 |first=Eskild |last=Hustvedt |quote=You can use a special keyword $ORIGIN to say 'relative to the actual location of the executable'. Suddenly we found we could use -rpath $ORIGIN/lib and it worked. The game was loading the correct libraries, and so was stable and portable, but was also now completely in the spirit of the LGPL as well as the letter!}}</ref> or compiling all source code together in a software product might violate open-source licenses, while keeping them separated by interfaces and [[Dynamic-link library|dynamic-link libraries]] might often adhere to license conform.

This approach is a variant of the [[freemium]] business model. The proprietary software may be intended to let customers get more value out of their data, infrastructure, or platform, e.g., operate their infrastructure/platform more effectively and efficiently, manage it better, or secure it better. Examples include the [[Linux Technology Center|IBM proprietary Linux software]], where IBM contributes to the Linux open-source ecosystem, but it builds and delivers (to IBM’s paying customers) [[database software]], [[middleware]], and other software that runs on top of the open-source core. Other examples of proprietary products built on open-source software include [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux]] and [[Cloudera]]'s [[Apache Hadoop]]-based software. Some companies appear to re-invest a portion of their financial profits from the sale of proprietary software back into the open source infrastructure.<ref name=OlsonStanford/>

Some companies, such as [[Digium]], sell proprietary but optional [[digital electronics]] hardware controlled by an open-source software product.<ref>{{cite av media | url = http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts/1565/Twenty-Years-of-Experience-in-Developing-Software-in-Silicon-Valley | title = Twenty Years of Experience in Developing Software in Silicon Valley | first = Kim | last = Polese | author-link = Kim Polese | website = Stanford eCorner | location = Stanford University | date = 9 November 2005 }}</ref>

=== Selling of required proprietary parts of a software product ===
A variant of the approach above is the keeping of required data content (for instance a [[video game]]'s audio, graphic, and other art assets) of a software product proprietary while making the software's source code open-source. While this approach is completely legitimate and compatible with most open-source licenses, customers have to buy the content to have a complete and working software product.<ref name="doom3GPL">{{cite web|url=https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl|quote=Doom 3 GPL source release [...] This source release does not contain any game data, the game data is still covered by the original EULA and must be obeyed as usual.|title= TTimo/doom3.gpl |publisher=[[GitHub]] |accessdate=2013-08-10 |date=2012-04-07}}</ref> Restrictive licenses can then be applied on the content, which prevents the redistribution or re-selling of the complete software product. Examples for open-source developed software are [[Kot-in-Action Creative Artel]] video game ''Steel Storm'', engine [[GPLv2]] licensed while the artwork is [[CC-BY-NC-SA]] 3.0 licensed,<ref name="steelstorm1">{{cite web|url=http://www.steel-storm.com/ss_license.html|title=STEEL STORM EPISODE 1 LIMITED USER SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT |quote=For the purpose of this Agreement, the Art Assets include pk3 archive inside of 'steelstorm/gamedata/' folder that contain two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of graphic art, photographs, prints and art reproductions, maps, charts, diagrams, models, and technical drawings, sound effects and musical arrangements, documentation and tutorial videos, and are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. The Engine, which includes Windows, Linux and Mac binaries, and the Engine's source code, are licensed under GNU GPL v2 license.|publisher=steel-storm.com |accessdate=2013-08-10|date=}}</ref> and ''[[Frogatto & Friends]]'' with an own developed open-source engine<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/anura-engine/anura/blob/trunk/LICENSE |date=2015-04-26 |accessdate=2015-10-10 |title=LICENCE |website=anura-engine - GitHub |first=Kristina|last=Simpson}}</ref> and commercialization via the copyrighted game assets<ref>{{cite web | url = https://github.com/frogatto/frogatto/blob/master/LICENSE |title = License | quote = CC-BY 3.0 LICENSE [...] assets under copyright | website = [[GitHub]] | author = frogatto}}</ref> for [[iPhone]], [[BlackBerry]] and [[MacOS]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://freegamer.blogspot.de/2011/04/humble-indie-bundles-source-releases.html | title = Humble Indie Bundle's Source Releases | first = Iwan | last = Gabovitch | quote = Another game which is commercial (on iDevices) and has FOSS code and closed art [...] is Frogatto. | date = 22 April 2011}}</ref>

Other examples are ''[[Arx Fatalis]]'' (by [[Arkane Studios]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/01/14/arx-fatalis-source-code-patch-released/ |title=Arx Fatalis source code, patch released! |author=Nick|date=2011-01-14 |accessdate=2011-08-10 |publisher=bethblog.com}}</ref> and ''[[Catacomb 3-D]]'' (by [[Flat Rock Software]])<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTcxMjM | title = id Software's Softdisk Open-Sources Some Really Old Games | first = Michael | last = Larabel | date = 6 June 2014 | accessdate = 6 June 2014 | publisher = [[Phoronix]] }}</ref> with source code opened to the public delayed after release, while copyrighted assets and binaries are still sold on [[gog.com]] as [[digital distribution]].<ref>{{cite press release | url = http://www.develop-online.net/press-releases/straight-out-of-the-dungeon-arx-fatalis-invades-gog-com/0129540 | title = Straight out of the Dungeon, Arx Fatalis invades GOG.com | first = Tom | last = Ohle | location = [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]] | date = 4 December 2008 | website = Develop-Online.net }}</ref>

Doing so conforms with the FSF and Richard Stallman, who stated that for art or entertainment the software freedoms are not required or important.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stallman.org/articles/online-education.html|title= On-line education is using a flawed Creative Commons license |first=Richard |last=Stallman |publisher=stallman.org |quote=In my view, nonfree licenses that permit sharing are ok for works of art/entertainment, or that present some party's viewpoint (such as this article itself). Those works aren't meant for doing a practical job, so the argument about the users' control does not apply. Thus, I do not object if they are published with the CC-BY-NC-ND license, which allows only noncommercial redistribution of exact copies. |accessdate=2013-08-10|year=2012}}</ref>

The similar [[product bundling]] of an open-source software product with hardware which prevents users from running modified versions of the software is called [[tivoization]] and is legal with most open-source licenses except [[GPLv3]], which explicitly prohibits this use-case.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/barcelona-moglen-transcript.en.html#drm|title=Eben Moglen, speaking about GPLv3 in Barcelona}}</ref>

=== Selling of proprietary update systems ===
Another variant of the approach above, mainly use for data-intensive, data-centric software programs, is the keeping of all versions of the software under a free and open source software license, but refraining from providing [[Software update|update]] scripts from a ''n'' to an ''n''+1 version. Users can still deploy and run the open source software. However, any update to the next version requires either exporting the data, reinstalling the new version, then reimporting the data to the new version, or subscribing to the proprietary update system, or studying the two versions and recreating the scripts from scratch.

This practice does not conform with the [[Software Freedom|free software principles]] as edicted by the FSF. Richard Stallman condemns this practice and names it "diachronically trapped software".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/when-free-depends-on-nonfree.en.html|title=gnu.org|website=www.gnu.org|language=en|access-date=2017-11-10}}</ref>

=== Re-licensing under a proprietary license ===
If a software product uses only own software and open-source software under a [[permissive free software licence]], a company can re-license the resulting software product under a proprietary license and sell the product without the source code or [[The Free Software Definition|software freedoms]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/bsdl-gpl/article.html |title=Why you should use a BSD style license for your Open Source Project - GPL Advantages and Disadvantages|quote=In contrast to the GPL, which is designed to prevent the proprietary commercialization of Open Source code, the BSD license places minimal restrictions on future behavior. This allows BSD code to remain Open Source or become integrated into commercial solutions, as a project's or company's needs change. In other words, the BSD license does not become a legal time-bomb at any point in the development process. In addition, since the BSD license does not come with the legal complexity of the GPL or LGPL licenses, it allows developers and companies to spend their time creating and promoting good code rather than worrying if that code violates licensing. |publisher=[[FreeBSD]] |first=Bruce|last=Montague |date=2013-11-13 |accessdate=2015-11-28}}</ref> For instance, [[Apple Inc.]] is an avid user of this approach by using source code and software from open-source projects. For example, the [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD Unix]] [[operating system]] kernel (under the [[BSD license]]) was used in [[Apple Inc.|Apple's]] [[Macintosh|Mac]] PCs that were sold as proprietary products.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/08/how-free-software-contributed.html|title=How Free Software Contributed to the Success of Steve Jobs and Apple|first=Andy|last=Oram |date=2011-08-26|publisher=radar.oreilly.com |accessdate=2013-08-10 |quote=the BSD license allowed Apple to keep its changes proprietary}}</ref>

=== Obfuscation of source code ===
An approach to allow commercialization under some open-source licenses while still protecting crucial business secrets, [[intellectual property]] and technical know-how is [[Obfuscation (software)|obfuscation]] of source code. This approach was used in several cases, for instance by [[Nvidia]] in their open-source [[graphic card]] device drivers.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_kills_nv&num=1 | title = NVIDIA Drops Their Open-Source Driver, Refers Users To VESA Driver | website = [[Phoronix]] | quote = The xf86-video-nv driver has been around that provides very basic 2D acceleration and a crippled set of features besides that (no proper RandR 1.2/1.3, KMS, power management, etc.) while the code has also been obfuscated to try to protect their intellectual property. | first = Michael | last = Larabel | author-link = Michael Larabel | date = 26 March 2010 }}</ref> This practice is used to get the open-source-friendly propaganda without bearing the inconveniences. There has been debate in the free-software/open-source community on whether it is illegal to skirt [[copyleft]] software licenses by releasing source code in obfuscated form, such as in cases in which the author is less willing to make the source code available. The general consensus was that while unethical, it was not considered a violation.

The [[Free Software Foundation]] is against this practice.<ref>{{ cite web | quote = Obfuscated “source code” is not real source code and does not count as source code. | url = https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html | title = What is free software? | website = [[Free Software Foundation]] }}</ref> The [[GNU General Public License]] since version 2 has defined "source code" as "the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it." This is intended to prevent the release of obfuscated source code.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lwn.net/Articles/431651/|title=Reasoning behind the "preferred form" language in the GPL|date=2011-03-07|accessdate=2013-08-19|publisher=lwn.net}}</ref>

=== Delayed open-sourcing ===
Some companies provide the latest version available only to paying customers. A vendor [[Fork (software development)|forks]] a non-[[copyleft]] software project then adds closed-source additions to it and sells the resulting software. After a fixed time period the [[Patch (computing)|patch]]es are released back [[Upstream (software development)|upstream]] under the same license as the rest of the codebase. This business model is called version lagging or time delaying.<ref name=OlsonStanford>{{cite av media | first = Mike | last = Olson | url = http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/3223/Opportunities-Abound-in-the-Big-Data-Space-Entire-Talk | title = Opportunities Abound in the Big Data Space | location = Stanford University | website = Stanford eCorner | date = 13 November 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=sprewell_licensing&num=1 | website = [[Phoronix]] | title = Towards A Real Business Model For Open-Source Software | author = Sprewell | date = 29 April 2010 }}</ref>

For instance, the [[MariaDB Corporation]] created for business compatible "delayed open-sourcing" the [[source-available]] ''Business source license'' (BSL) which automatically [[Relicensing|relicenses]] after three years to the [[Free and open-source software|FOSS]] GPL.<ref name="widenius-maxscale">{{cite news | url = https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/24/monty_interview/ | title= MySQL daddy Widenius: Open-source religion won't feed MariaDB | work = [[The Register]] | date = 24 August 2016 | first = Alexander J | last = Martin }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.infoworld.com/article/3109213/open-source-tools/open-source-uproar-as-mariadb-goes-commercial.html | title = Uproar: MariaDB Corp. veers away from open source | website = [[InfoWorld]] | first = Simon | last = Phipps | author-link = Simon Phipps (programmer) | date = 19 August 2016 }}</ref> This approach guarantees licensees that they have source code access (e.g. for [[code audit]]s), are not locked into a [[closed platform]], or suffer from [[planned obsolescence]], while for the software developer a time-limited exclusive commercialization is possible.<ref name="widenius-maxscale"/>

However, this approach works only with own software or [[Permissive free software licence|permissive licensed]] code parts, as there is no copyleft FOSS license available which allows the time delayed opening of the source code after distributing or selling of a software product.

=== Open sourcing on end-of-life===
{{seealso|List of commercial software with available source code|List of commercial video games with available source code}}
An extreme variant of "delayed open-sourcing" is a business practice popularized by [[id Software]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/id-Software-releases-Doom-3-source-code-1383572.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131208041324/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/id-Software-releases-Doom-3-source-code-1383572.html | archive-date = 8 December 2013 | title = id Software releases Doom 3 source code | website = The H Open | date = 23 November 2011 | dead-url = no}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Wolfenstein+3D+Classic/news.asp?c=12324 | title = id Software makes iPhone Wolfenstein open source | first = Spanner | last = Spencer | date = 24 March 2009 | website = PocketGamer.co.uk}}</ref> and [[3D Realms]],<ref name="shadowwarriorOSS">{{cite web | url = http://legacy.3drealms.com/news/2005/04/shadow_warrior_12.html | title = Shadow Warrior Source Code Released | publisher = [[3D Realms]] | date = 1 April 2005 | first = Joe | last = Siegler }}</ref><ref name="several3DRealmsgamesOSS">{{cite web | url = http://legacy.3drealms.com/games.html | title = Games | quote = Selected games have had their source code released by us. These games are: Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Rise of the Triad, Word Whiz, Beyond the Titanic, Supernova, & Kroz. You can obtain these from our downloads page. | publisher = [[3D Realms]] }}</ref> which released several software products under a [[free software license]] after a long proprietary commercialization time period and the [[return of investment]] was achieved. The motivation of companies following this practice of releasing the source code when a software reaches the commercial [[End-of-life (product)|end-of-life]], is to prevent that their software becomes unsupported [[Abandonware]] or even get lost due to [[digital obsolescence]].<ref name="videogaem preservation">{{cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6271/where_games_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php?print=1 |title=Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis, Part 1 |first=John |last=Andersen |quote=The existence of decaying technology, disorganization, and poor storage could in theory put a video game to sleep permanently -- never to be played again. Troubling admissions have surfaced over the years concerning video game preservation. When questions concerning re-releases of certain game titles are brought up during interviews with developers, for example, these developers would reveal issues of game production material being lost or destroyed. Certain game titles could not see a re-release due to various issues. One story began to circulate of source code being lost altogether for a well-known RPG, preventing its re-release on a new console. |publisher=[[Gamasutra]] |accessdate=2013-01-10 |date=2011-01-27}}</ref> This gives the [[User community|user communities]] the chance to continue development and support of the software product themselves as an open-source software project.<ref name="timcalltopower2">{{cite web |url=http://timreview.ca/article/294 |title=Opening the Source of Art |date=2009-10-01 |first=John |last=Bell |quote=[...]that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming. The community was predictably upset. Instead of giving up on the game, users decided that if Activision wasn't going to fix the bugs, they would. They wanted to save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision lost interest. With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums, they were eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II's source code in October of 2003. |publisher=Technology Innovation Management Review |accessdate=2013-08-09 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330084636/http://timreview.ca/article/294 |archivedate=2014-03-30 |df= }}</ref> Many examples from the [[video game]] domain are in the [[list of commercial video games with later released source code]].

Popular non-game software examples are the [[Netscape Communicator]] which was open-sourced in 1998<ref name="netscapeopensource">{{cite web|url=http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease558.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070401072854/http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease558.html |archivedate=2007-04-01 |date=1998-01-22 |accessdate=2013-08-08 |publisher=[[Netscape Communications Corporation]] |title=NETSCAPE ANNOUNCES PLANS TO MAKE NEXT-GENERATION COMMUNICATOR SOURCE CODE AVAILABLE FREE ON THE NET |quote=BOLD MOVE TO HARNESS CREATIVE POWER OF THOUSANDS OF INTERNET DEVELOPERS; COMPANY MAKES NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR AND COMMUNICATOR 4.0 IMMEDIATELY FREE FOR ALL USERS, SEEDING MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE AND NETCENTER BUSINESSES}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netscape-celebrates-first-anniversary-of-open-source-software-release-to-mozillaorg-73806207.html |title= MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Netscape Communications and open source developers are celebrating the first anniversary, March 31, 1999, of the release of Netscape's browser source code to mozilla.org |accessdate=2013-01-10 |date=1999-03-31 |quote=[...] The organization that manages open source developers working on the next generation of Netscape's browser and communication software. This event marked a historical milestone for the Internet as Netscape became the first major commercial software company to open its source code, a trend that has since been followed by several other corporations. Since the code was first published on the Internet, thousands of individuals and organizations have downloaded it and made hundreds of contributions to the software. Mozilla.org is now celebrating this one-year anniversary with a party Thursday night in San Francisco.|publisher=[[Netscape Communications]]}}</ref> and [[Sun Microsystems]]'s [[office suite]], [[StarOffice]], which was released in October 2000 at its commercial end of life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2000101300221NWDTSW |title=StarOffice Code Released in Largest Open Source Project |date=2000-10-13 |first=Brian |last=Proffitt |quote=Sun's joint effort with CollabNet kicked into high gear on the OpenOffice Web site at 5 a.m. PST this morning with the release of much of the source code for the upcoming 6.0 version of StarOffice. According to Sun, this release of 9 million lines of code under GPL is the beginning of the largest open source software project ever. |accessdate=2013-01-10 |publisher=linuxtoday.com |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016014106/http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2000101300221NWDTSW |archivedate=2013-10-16 |df= }}</ref> Both releases formed the basis of important open-source projects, namely [[Mozilla Firefox]] and [[OpenOffice.org]]/[[LibreOffice]]. However, Firefox eventually gained a more-than-self-sustaining revenue model, so Firefox was not an example of a commercial end-of-life release.

== FOSS and economy ==
{{main article|Open-source economics}}
According to [[Yochai Benkler]], the Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at [[Harvard Law School]], free software is the most visible part of a new economy of [[commons-based peer production]] of information, knowledge, and culture. As examples, he cites a variety of FOSS projects, including both free software and open source.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Benkler|first=Yochai|title=Freedom in the Commons: Towards a Political Economy of Information|journal=Duke Law Journal |date=April 2003|volume=52|issue=6|url=http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?52+Duke+L.+J.+1245+pdf}}</ref>

This new economy is already under development. In order to commercialize FOSS, many companies, [[Google]] being the most successful, are moving towards an [[economic model]] of [[advertising-supported software]]. In such a model, the only way to increase revenue is to make the advertising more valuable. [[Facebook]] has recently come under fire for using novel user tracking methods to accomplish this.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/facebook-tracking-prompts-calls-for-ftc-investigation/2011/09/29/gIQAVdsP8K_story.html |publisher=[[Washington Post]]|accessdate=23 October 2011|first=Dina|last=ElBoghdady |author2=Hayley Tsukayama |title=Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation |date=2011-09-30}}</ref>

This new economy is not without alternatives. Apple's [[App Store (iOS)|App Stores]] have proven very popular with both users and developers. The Free Software Foundation considers Apple's App Stores to be [[License compatibility|incompatible]] with its GPL and complained that Apple was infringing on the GPL with its [[iTunes]] terms of use.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/01/vlc-for-ios-vanishes-2-months-after-eruption-of-gpl-dispute/ | title = VLC for iOS vanishes 2 months after eruption of GPL dispute | work = [[Ars Technica]] | first = Jacqui | last = Cheng | date = 10 January 2011 }}</ref> Rather than change those terms to comply with the GPL, Apple removed the GPL-licensed products from its App Stores.<ref>{{cite web |last=Vaughan-Nichols |first=Steven |title=No GPL Apps for Apple's App Store |url=http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/no-gpl-apps-for-apples-app-store/8046|accessdate=23 October 2011}}</ref> The authors of [[VLC media player|VLC]], one of the GPL-licensed programs at the center of those complaints, recently began the process to switch from the GPL to the [[LGPL]] and [[Mozilla Public License|MPL]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Changing the VLC engine license to LGPL|url=http://www.videolan.org/press/lgpl.html |accessdate=23 October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/vlc-media-player-returns-to-the-ios-app-store-after-30-month-hiatus/ | title = VLC media player returns to the iOS App Store after 30-month hiatus | date = 18 July 2013 | first = Casey | last = Johnston | work = [[Ars Technica]] | access-date = 10 October 2013 }}</ref>

== Examples ==
{{Main article|List of commercial open-source applications and services}}
Much of the Internet runs on open-source software tools and utilities such as [[Linux]], [[Apache HTTP Server|Apache]], [[MySQL]], and [[PHP]], known as the [[LAMP (software bundle)|LAMP stack]] for web servers.{{Citation needed|date=December 2014}} Using open source appeals to software developers for three main reasons: low or no cost, access to [[source code]] they can tailor themselves, and a shared community that ensures a generally robust code base, with quick fixes for new issues.

Despite doing much business in proprietary software, some companies like [[Oracle Corporation]] and [[IBM]] participated in developing [[free and open-source software]] to deter from [[monopoly|monopolies]] and take a portion of [[market share]] for themselves. See [[Commercial open-source applications]] for the list of current commercial open-source offerings. [[Netscape]]'s actions were an example of this, and thus [[Mozilla Firefox]] has become more popular, getting market share from [[Internet Explorer]].

* [[Active Agenda]] is offered for free, but requires all extensions to be shared back with the world community. The project sells a "Non-Reciprocal Private License" to anyone interested in keeping module extensions private.
* [[Adobe Systems]] offers [[Adobe Flex|Flex]] for free, while selling the [[Adobe Flash Builder|Flash Builder]] [[Integrated development environment|IDE]].
* [[Apple Inc.]] offers [[Darwin (operating system)|Darwin]] for free, while selling [[Mac OS X]].
* [[Asterisk (PBX)]], [[digital electronics]] hardware controlled by open-source software
* [[Codeweavers]] sells [[CrossOver]] commercially, deriving it from the free [[Wine (software)|Wine]] project they also back.
* [[Canonical Ltd.]] offers [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] for free, while they sell commercial technical support contracts.
* [[Cloudera]]'s [[Apache Hadoop]]-based software.
* Francisco Burzi offers [[PHP-Nuke]] for free, but the latest version is offered commercially.
* [[DaDaBIK]], although following a donationware approach, requires a small, minimum donation fee, to be downloaded.
* [[Linux Technology Center|IBM proprietary Linux software]], where IBM delivers [[database software]], [[middleware]] and other software.
* [[Ingres (database)|Ingres]] is offered for free, but services and support are offered as a subscription. The Ingres Icebreaker Appliance is also offered as a commercial database appliance.
* [[id Software]] releases their legacy [[game engine]]s under the GPL, while retaining proprietary ownership on their latest incarnation.
* [[Mozilla Foundation]] have a partnership with [[Google]] and other companies which provides revenue for inclusion of search engines in [[Mozilla Firefox]].
* [[MySQL]] is offered for free, but with the enterprise version includes support and additional features.
* [[SUSE]] offers [[openSUSE]] for free through the [[openSUSE Project]], while selling [[SUSE Linux Enterprise]] (SLE).
* [[OpenSearchServer]] offers its community edition on SourceForge and an enterprise edition with professional services to enterprises with a paid license
* [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] - [[VirtualBox]] is free and open to anyone, but the [[Virtualbox#Features only available with the extension pack|VirtualBox extension pack]] can only be used for free at home, thus requiring payment from business users
* [[OWASP|OWASP Foundation]] is a professional community of open-source developers focused on raising visible for software security.
* [[Red Hat]] sells support subscriptions for [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux]] (RHEL) which is an enterprise distribution periodically forked from the community-developed [[Fedora (Linux distribution)|Fedora]].
* [[Sourcefire]] offers [[Snort (software)|Snort]] for free, while selling Sourcefire 3D.
* [[Sun Microsystems]] ([[Sun acquisition by Oracle|acquired by Oracle]] in 2010) once offered [[OpenOffice.org]] for free, while selling [[StarOffice]]
* [[Untangle]] provides its Lite Package for free, while selling its Standard and Premium Packages by subscription
* [[Zend Technologies]] offers [[Zend Server CE]] and [[Zend Framework]] for free, but sells [[Zend Server]] with support and additional features.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Business and Economics|Software}}
* [[Free software#Business model|Free software business model]]
* [[Open Source Development Labs]]
* [[Commercial use of copyleft works]]
* [[Open business]]
* [[Open innovation]]
* [[Crowdsourcing]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
{{further cleanup|date=December 2015}}
* {{cite web | url = http://opensourcebestpractices.net/OpenSourceBusinessModels.html | title = Open Source Business Models | first = Karl Michael | last = Popp | year = 2015 | website = Open Source Best Practices}}
* {{cite web | url = http://riseforth.com/pdf/seven_open_source_business_strategies.pdf | title = Seven Open Source Business Strategies for Commercial Advantage | first = John | last = Koenig | publisher = Riseforth | year = 2004 | format = PDF}}
* {{cite web | url = http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/commercial-floss.html | title = Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) is Commercial Software | author-link = David A. Wheeler | first = David A. | last = Wheeler | date = 14 June 2011 | publication-date = 27 December 2006}}
* {{cite web | website = [[Free Software Foundation]] | title = Selling Free Software | url = https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html | date = 18 November 2016}}
* {{cite journal | last = Perens | first = Bruce | authorlink = Bruce Perens | title = The emerging economic paradigm of Open Source | journal = First Monday | date = 3 October 2005 | issue = 2 | url = http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/1470/1385}}
* {{cite web | title = Economic aspects and business models of Free Software | url = http://ftacademy.org/sites/ftacademy.org/files/materials/fta-m5-economic_models.pdf | first1= Amadeu Albós | last1= Raya | first2 = Lluís Bru | last2 = Martínez |first3 = Irene Fernández | last3 = Monsalve | publication-date = September 2010 | format = PDF | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160527144253/http://ftacademy.org/sites/ftacademy.org/files/materials/fta-m5-economic_models.pdf | archive-date = 27 May 2016 | dead-url = no}}
* {{cite web | last1 = Chang | first1 = Victor | last2 = Mills | first2 = Hugo | last3 = Newhouse | first3 = Steven | title = From Open Source to long-term sustainability: Review of Business Models and Case studies | url = http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/263925/ | website = University of Southampton | date = 27 March 2014 | publication-date = 20 June 2007}}
* {{cite book | title = The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source | isbn = 9780130476777 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nKUJKu6MtRQC | first = Martin | last = Fink | publisher = Prentice Hall Professional | year = 2003}}
* {{cite web | last = Dornan | first = Andy | title = The Five Open Source Business Models | url = http://www.informationweek.com/applications/the-five-open-source-business-models/d/d-id/1062798?, | website = InformationWeek | date = 2 January 2008}}
* {{cite book | last = Golden | first = Bernard | title = Succeeding with Open Source | date = 2005 | publisher = Addison-Wesley Professional | location = [[Boston]] | isbn = 9780321268532 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=S4d9SzBjGIgC | chapter = 2: Open Source Business Models}}
* {{cite book | title = [[Wikinomics|Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything]] | authorlink1 = Don Tapscott | first1 = Don | last1 = Tapscott | authorlink2 = Anthony D. Williams (author) | first2 = Anthony D. | last2 = Williams | date = December 2006 | publisher = [[Penguin Random House|Portfolio]] | isbn = 9781591841388}}

[[Category:Business models]]
[[Category:Free software]]
[[Category:Free software culture and documents]]
[[Category:Software industry]]
[[Category:Economics of intellectual property]]

[[pl:Otwarte oprogramowanie#Modele biznesowe dla otwartego oprogramowania]]

Version du 15 novembre 2017 à 10:22

TRADUCTION DE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_open-source_software


Modèle:Distinguish Les logiciels Open Source sont largement utilisés aussi bien comme des solutions indépendante que comme des composants de solutions non Open Source. De nombreux

independent software vendors (ISVs), value-added resellers (VARs), and hardware vendors (OEMs or ODMs)

utilisent des infrastructures Open Source, des modules, et des librairies au sein de leurs solutions propriétaires, commerciales, et leurs services[1]

Du point de vue du consommateur, la possibilité de faire usage d'une technologie Open Source From a customer's perspective, the ability to use open technology under standard commercial terms and support is valuable. They are willing to pay for the legal protection (e.g., indemnification from copyright or patent infringement), "commercial-grade QA", and professional support/training/consulting that are typical of commercial software, while also receiving the benefits of fine-grained control and lack of lock-in that comes with open-source.

Funding

Much unlike proprietary off-the-shelf software that come with restrictive licenses, open-source software is distributed freely, through the web and in physical media. Because creators cannot require each user to pay a license fee to fund development this way, a number of alternative development funding models have emerged.

An example of those funding models is when bespoke software is developed as a consulting project for one or more customers who request it. These customers pay developers to have this software developed according to their own needs and they could also closely direct the developers' work. If both parties agree, the resulting software could then be publicly released with an open-source license in order to allow subsequent adoption by other parties. That agreement could reduce the costs paid by the clients while the original developers (or independent consultants) can then charge for training, installation, technical support, or further customization if and when more interested customers would choose to use it after the initial release.

There also exist stipends to support the development of open source software, such as Google's Summer of Code.[2]

Another approach to funding is to provide the software freely, but sell licenses to proprietary add-ons such as data libraries. For instance, an open-source CAD program may require parts libraries which are sold on a subscription or flat-fee basis. Open-source software can also promote the sale of specialized hardware that it interoperates with, some example cases being the Asterisk telephony software developed by PC-telephony hardware manufacturer Digium and the Robot Operating System (ROS) robotics platform by Willow Garage and Stanford AI Labs. Many open source software projects have begun as research projects within universities, as personal projects of students or professors, or as tools to aid scientific research. The influence of universities and research institutions on open-source shows in the number of projects named after their host institutions, such as BSD Unix, CMU Common Lisp, or the NCSA HTTPd which evolved into Apache.

Companies may employ developers to work on open-source projects that are useful to the company's infrastructure: in this case, it is developed not as a product to be sold but as a sort of shared public utility. A local bug-fix or solution to a software problem, written by a developer either at a company's request or to make his/her own job easier, can be released as an open-source contribution without costing the company anything.[3] A larger project such as the Linux kernel may have contributors from dozens of companies which use and depend upon it, as well as hobbyist and research developers.

A new funding approach for open-source projects is crowdfunding, organized over web platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or Bountysource.[4]

Challenges

Modèle:Cleanup merge Modèle:Refimprove section Open-source software can be sold and used in general commercially. Also, commercial open-source applications have been a part of the software industry for some time.[1][5] While commercialization or funding of open-source software projects is possible, it is considered challenging.[6]

Since several open-source licenses stipulate that authors of derivative works must distribute them under an open-source (copyleft) license, ISVs and VARs have to develop new legal and technical mechanisms to foster their commercial goals,[7] as many traditional mechanisms are not directly applicable anymore.

Traditional business wisdom suggests that a company's methods, assets, and intellectual properties should remain concealed from market competitors (trade secret) as long as possible to maximize the profitable commercialization time of a new product.[8] Open-source software development minimizes the effectiveness of this tactic; development of the product is usually performed in view of the public, allowing competing projects or clones to incorporate new features or improvements as soon as the public code repository is updated, as permitted by most open-source licenses. Also in the computer hardware domain, a hardware producer who provides free and open software drivers reveals the knowledge about hardware implementation details to competitors, who might use this knowledge to catch up.

Therefore, there is considerable debate about whether vendors can make a sustainable business from an open-source strategy. In terms of a traditional software company, this is probably the wrong question to ask. Looking at the landscape of open source applications, many of the larger ones are sponsored (and largely written) by system companies such as IBM who may not have an objective of software license revenues. Other software companies, such as Oracle and Google, have sponsored or delivered significant open-source code bases. These firms' motivation tends to be more strategic, in the sense that they are trying to change the rules of a marketplace and reduce the influence of vendors such as Microsoft. Smaller vendors doing open-source work may be less concerned with immediate revenue growth than developing a large and loyal community, which may be the basis of a corporate valuation at merger time.

Approaches

A variety of open-source compatible business approaches have gained prominence in recent yearsModèle:According to whom; notable examples include dual licensing, software as a service, not charging for the software but for services, freemium, donation-based funding, crowdfunding, and crowdsourcing.

There are several different types of business models for making profit using open-source software (OSS) or funding the creation. Below are existing and legal commercial business approaches in context of open-source software and open-source licenses.[7] The acceptance of these approaches varies; some of these approaches are recommended (like selling services), others are accepted, while still others are considered controversial or even unethical by the open-source community. The underlying objective of these business models is to harness the size and international scope of the open-source community (typically more than an order of magnitude larger than what would be achieved with closed-source models) for a sustainable commercial venture.[réf. nécessaire] The vast majority of commercial open-source companies experience a conversion ratio (as measured by the percentage of downloaders who buy something) well below 1%, so low-cost and highly-scalable marketing and sales functions are key to these firms' profitability.[réf. nécessaire]

Dual-licensing

Modèle:Main article Dual licensing offers the software under an open-source license but also under separate proprietary license terms. The proprietary version can be sold to finance the continued development of the free open-source version.[9] Customers can be attracted to a no-cost and open-source edition, then be part of an up-sell to a commercial enterprise edition. Further, customers will learn of open-source software in a company's portfolio and offerings but generate business in other proprietary products and solutions, including commercial technical support contracts and services. A popular example is Oracle's MySQL database which is dual-licensed under a commercial proprietary license as also under the GPLv2.[10] Another example is the Sleepycat License. Flask developer Armin Ronacher stated that the AGPLv3 was a "terrible success" as "vehicle for dual commercial licensing" and noted that MongoDB, RethinkDB, OpenERP, SugarCRM as well as WURFL utilizing the license for this purpose.[11]

Selling professional services

The financial return of costs on open-source software can also come from selling services, such as training, technical support, or consulting, rather than the software itself.[12][13]

Another possibility is offering open-source software in source code form only, while providing executable binaries to paying customers only, offering the commercial service of compiling and packaging of the software. Also, providing goods like physical installation media (e.g., DVDs) can be a commercial service.

Open-source companies using this business model successfully are for instance RedHat and IBM;[14] a more specialized example is that of Revolution Analytics.

Selling of branded merchandise

Some open-source organizations such as the Mozilla Foundation[15] and the Wikimedia Foundation[16] sell branded merchandise articles like t-shirts and coffee mugs. This can be also seen as an additional service provided to the user community.

Selling of certificates and trademark use

Modèle:Main article Another financing approach is innovated by Moodle, an open source learning management system and community platform.[17][18] The business model revolves around a network of commercial partners[19] who are certificated and therefore authorised to use the Moodle name and logo,[20] and in turn provide a proportion of revenue to the Moodle Trust, which funds core development.[21]

Selling software as a service

Selling subscriptions for online accounts and server access to customers is a way of making profit based on open-source software. Also, combining desktop software with a service, called software plus services. Providing cloud computing services or software as a service (SaaS) without the release of the open-source software itself, neither in binary nor in source form, conforms with most open-source licenses (with exception of the AGPL).

Because of its lack of software freedoms, Richard Stallman calls SaaS "inherently bad" while acknowledging its legality.[22][23] The FSF called the server-side use-case without release of the source-code the "ASP loophole in the GPLv2" and encourage therefore the use of the Affero General Public License which plugged this hole in 2002.[24][25] In 2007 the FSF contemplated including the special provision of AGPLv1 into GPLv3 but ultimately decided to keep the licenses separate.[26]

Partnership with funding organizations

Other financial situations include partnerships with other companies. Governments, universities, companies, and non-governmental organizations may develop internally or hire a contractor for custom in-house modifications, then release that code under an open-source license. Some organizations support the development of open-source software by grants or stipends, like Google's Summer of Code initiative founded in 2005.[2]

Voluntary donations

Modèle:Main article Also, there were experiments by Independent developers to fund development of open-source software donation-driven directly by the users, e.g., with the Illumination Software Creator in 2012.[27] From 2011 to 2016 SourceForge allowed users to donate to hosted projects that opted to accept donations.[28]Modèle:Update inline Internet micro-payments systems like PayPal, flattr, and Bitcoin help this approach.

Larger donation campaigns also exist. In 2004 the Mozilla Foundation carried out a fundraising campaign to support the launch of the Firefox 1.0 web browser. It placed a two-page ad in the December 16 edition of the New York Times listing the names of the thousands who had donated.[29][30]

Bounty driven development

Modèle:Main article The users of a particular software artifact may come together and pool money into an open-source bounty for the implementation of a desired feature or functionality. Offering bounties as funding has existed for some time. For instance, Bountysource is a web platform which has offered this funding model for open source software since 2003.

Another bounty source is companies or foundations that set up bounty programs for implemented features or bugfixes in open-source software relevant to them. For instance, Mozilla has been paying and funding freelance open-source programmers for security bug hunting and fixing since 2004.[31][32][33]

Pre-order/crowdfunding/reverse-bounty model

A newer funding opportunity for open-source software projects is crowdfunding, which shares similarities with the pre-order or Praenumeration business model, as well as the reverse bounty model, typically organized over web platforms like Kickstarter,[34] Indiegogo,[35] or Bountysource[4] (see also comparison of crowd funding services). One example is the successfully funded Indiegogo campaign in 2013 by Australian programmer Timothy Arceri, who offered to implement an OpenGL 4.3 extension for the Mesa library in two weeks for $2,500.[35] Arceri delivered the OpenGL extension code which was promptly merged upstream, and he later continued his efforts on Mesa with successive crowdfunding campaigns.[36] Later, he found work as an employee in this domain with Collabora and in 2017 with Valve Corporation.[37] Another example is the June 2013 crowdfunding on Kickstarter[38][39] of the open source video game Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead which raised the payment of a full-time developer for 3.5 months. Patreon funding has also become an effective option, as the service gives the option to pay out each month to creators, many of whom intend to develop free and open source software.[40]

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a type of participative online activity in which an individual, an institution, a nonprofit organization, or company proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and number, the voluntary undertaking of a task via a flexible open call. The undertaking of the task, of variable complexity and modularity, and in which the crowd should participate, bringing their work, money, knowledge and/or experience, always entails mutual benefit. The user will receive the satisfaction of a given type of need, be it economic, social recognition, self-esteem, or the development of individual skills, while the crowdsourcer will obtain and use to their advantage that which the user has brought to the venture, whose form will depend on the type of activity undertaken. Cave-ats in pursuing a Crowdsourcing strategy are to induce a substantial market model or incentive[41], and care has to be taken that the whole thing doesn‘t end up in an open source anarchy of adware and spyware plagiates, with a lot of broken solutions, started by people who just wanted to try it out, then gave up early, and a few winners. Popular examples for Crowdsourcing are Linux, Google Android, the Pirate Party movement, and Wikipedia.

Advertising-supported software

In order to commercialize FOSS (free and open-source software), many companies (including Google, Mozilla, and Canonical) have moved towards an economic model of advertising-supported software. For instance, the open-source application AdBlock Plus gets paid by Google for letting whitelisted Acceptable Ads bypassing the browser ad remover.[42] As another example is SourceForge, an open-source project service provider, has the revenue model of advertising banner sales on their website. In 2006, SourceForge reported quarterly takings of $6.5 million[43] and $23 million in 2009.[44]

Selling of optional proprietary extensions

Modèle:Main article Some companies sell proprietary but optional extensions, modules, plugins or add-ons to an open-source software product. This can be a "license conform" approach with many open-source licenses if done technically sufficiently carefully. For instance, mixing proprietary code and open-source licensed code in statically linked libraries[45] or compiling all source code together in a software product might violate open-source licenses, while keeping them separated by interfaces and dynamic-link libraries might often adhere to license conform.

This approach is a variant of the freemium business model. The proprietary software may be intended to let customers get more value out of their data, infrastructure, or platform, e.g., operate their infrastructure/platform more effectively and efficiently, manage it better, or secure it better. Examples include the IBM proprietary Linux software, where IBM contributes to the Linux open-source ecosystem, but it builds and delivers (to IBM’s paying customers) database software, middleware, and other software that runs on top of the open-source core. Other examples of proprietary products built on open-source software include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Cloudera's Apache Hadoop-based software. Some companies appear to re-invest a portion of their financial profits from the sale of proprietary software back into the open source infrastructure.[46]

Some companies, such as Digium, sell proprietary but optional digital electronics hardware controlled by an open-source software product.[47]

Selling of required proprietary parts of a software product

A variant of the approach above is the keeping of required data content (for instance a video game's audio, graphic, and other art assets) of a software product proprietary while making the software's source code open-source. While this approach is completely legitimate and compatible with most open-source licenses, customers have to buy the content to have a complete and working software product.[48] Restrictive licenses can then be applied on the content, which prevents the redistribution or re-selling of the complete software product. Examples for open-source developed software are Kot-in-Action Creative Artel video game Steel Storm, engine GPLv2 licensed while the artwork is CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 licensed,[49] and Frogatto & Friends with an own developed open-source engine[50] and commercialization via the copyrighted game assets[51] for iPhone, BlackBerry and MacOS.[52]

Other examples are Arx Fatalis (by Arkane Studios)[53] and Catacomb 3-D (by Flat Rock Software)[54] with source code opened to the public delayed after release, while copyrighted assets and binaries are still sold on gog.com as digital distribution.[55]

Doing so conforms with the FSF and Richard Stallman, who stated that for art or entertainment the software freedoms are not required or important.[56]

The similar product bundling of an open-source software product with hardware which prevents users from running modified versions of the software is called tivoization and is legal with most open-source licenses except GPLv3, which explicitly prohibits this use-case.[57]

Selling of proprietary update systems

Another variant of the approach above, mainly use for data-intensive, data-centric software programs, is the keeping of all versions of the software under a free and open source software license, but refraining from providing update scripts from a n to an n+1 version. Users can still deploy and run the open source software. However, any update to the next version requires either exporting the data, reinstalling the new version, then reimporting the data to the new version, or subscribing to the proprietary update system, or studying the two versions and recreating the scripts from scratch.

This practice does not conform with the free software principles as edicted by the FSF. Richard Stallman condemns this practice and names it "diachronically trapped software".[58]

Re-licensing under a proprietary license

If a software product uses only own software and open-source software under a permissive free software licence, a company can re-license the resulting software product under a proprietary license and sell the product without the source code or software freedoms.[59] For instance, Apple Inc. is an avid user of this approach by using source code and software from open-source projects. For example, the BSD Unix operating system kernel (under the BSD license) was used in Apple's Mac PCs that were sold as proprietary products.[60]

Obfuscation of source code

An approach to allow commercialization under some open-source licenses while still protecting crucial business secrets, intellectual property and technical know-how is obfuscation of source code. This approach was used in several cases, for instance by Nvidia in their open-source graphic card device drivers.[61] This practice is used to get the open-source-friendly propaganda without bearing the inconveniences. There has been debate in the free-software/open-source community on whether it is illegal to skirt copyleft software licenses by releasing source code in obfuscated form, such as in cases in which the author is less willing to make the source code available. The general consensus was that while unethical, it was not considered a violation.

The Free Software Foundation is against this practice.[62] The GNU General Public License since version 2 has defined "source code" as "the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it." This is intended to prevent the release of obfuscated source code.[63]

Delayed open-sourcing

Some companies provide the latest version available only to paying customers. A vendor forks a non-copyleft software project then adds closed-source additions to it and sells the resulting software. After a fixed time period the patches are released back upstream under the same license as the rest of the codebase. This business model is called version lagging or time delaying.[46][64]

For instance, the MariaDB Corporation created for business compatible "delayed open-sourcing" the source-available Business source license (BSL) which automatically relicenses after three years to the FOSS GPL.[65][66] This approach guarantees licensees that they have source code access (e.g. for code audits), are not locked into a closed platform, or suffer from planned obsolescence, while for the software developer a time-limited exclusive commercialization is possible.[65]

However, this approach works only with own software or permissive licensed code parts, as there is no copyleft FOSS license available which allows the time delayed opening of the source code after distributing or selling of a software product.

Open sourcing on end-of-life

Modèle:Seealso An extreme variant of "delayed open-sourcing" is a business practice popularized by id Software[67][68] and 3D Realms,[69][70] which released several software products under a free software license after a long proprietary commercialization time period and the return of investment was achieved. The motivation of companies following this practice of releasing the source code when a software reaches the commercial end-of-life, is to prevent that their software becomes unsupported Abandonware or even get lost due to digital obsolescence.[71] This gives the user communities the chance to continue development and support of the software product themselves as an open-source software project.[72] Many examples from the video game domain are in the list of commercial video games with later released source code.

Popular non-game software examples are the Netscape Communicator which was open-sourced in 1998[73][74] and Sun Microsystems's office suite, StarOffice, which was released in October 2000 at its commercial end of life.[75] Both releases formed the basis of important open-source projects, namely Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice. However, Firefox eventually gained a more-than-self-sustaining revenue model, so Firefox was not an example of a commercial end-of-life release.

FOSS and economy

Modèle:Main article According to Yochai Benkler, the Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, free software is the most visible part of a new economy of commons-based peer production of information, knowledge, and culture. As examples, he cites a variety of FOSS projects, including both free software and open source.[76]

This new economy is already under development. In order to commercialize FOSS, many companies, Google being the most successful, are moving towards an economic model of advertising-supported software. In such a model, the only way to increase revenue is to make the advertising more valuable. Facebook has recently come under fire for using novel user tracking methods to accomplish this.[77]

This new economy is not without alternatives. Apple's App Stores have proven very popular with both users and developers. The Free Software Foundation considers Apple's App Stores to be incompatible with its GPL and complained that Apple was infringing on the GPL with its iTunes terms of use.[78] Rather than change those terms to comply with the GPL, Apple removed the GPL-licensed products from its App Stores.[79] The authors of VLC, one of the GPL-licensed programs at the center of those complaints, recently began the process to switch from the GPL to the LGPL and MPL.[80][81]

Examples

Modèle:Main article Much of the Internet runs on open-source software tools and utilities such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, known as the LAMP stack for web servers.[réf. nécessaire] Using open source appeals to software developers for three main reasons: low or no cost, access to source code they can tailor themselves, and a shared community that ensures a generally robust code base, with quick fixes for new issues.

Despite doing much business in proprietary software, some companies like Oracle Corporation and IBM participated in developing free and open-source software to deter from monopolies and take a portion of market share for themselves. See Commercial open-source applications for the list of current commercial open-source offerings. Netscape's actions were an example of this, and thus Mozilla Firefox has become more popular, getting market share from Internet Explorer.

See also

Modèle:Portal

References

  1. a et b (en) Dr. Karl Michael Popp et Ralf Meyer, Profit from Software Ecosystems: Business Models, Ecosystems and Partnerships in the Software Industry, Norderstedt, Germany, Books on Demand, (ISBN 9783839169834, lire en ligne)
  2. a et b Bruce Byfield, « Google's Summer of Code concludes », linux.com, (consulté le ) : « DiBona said that the SOC was designed to benefit everyone involved in it. Students had the chance to work on real projects, rather than academic ones, and to get paid while gaining experience and making contacts. FOSS projects benefited from getting new code and having the chance to recruit new developers. »
  3. Ursula Holtgrewe, « Articulating the Speed(s) of the Internet: The Case of Open Source/Free Software », Time & Society, vol. 13,‎ , p. 129–146 (DOI 10.1177/0961463X04040750)
  4. a et b « Bountysource Raises $1.1 Million for the First Crowdfunding Platform for Open-Source Software Projects », sur Yahoo Finance, Marketwired, (consulté le )
  5. David A. Wheeler, « F/LOSS is Commercial Software », sur Technology Innovation Management Review, Talent First Network, (consulté le )
  6. Richard Stallman (S20E10) (Jupiter Broadcasting. La scène se produit à 0:53:46. “I'm not going to claim that I got a way to make it easier to raise money to pay people who write free software. We all know, that to some extent there are ways to do that, but we all know that they are limited, they are not as broad as we would like.”
  7. a et b (en) Dr. Karl Michael Popp, Best Practices for commercial use of open source software, Norderstedt, Germany, Books on Demand, (ISBN 978-3738619096)
  8. S. Donovan, « Patent, copyright and trade secret protection for software », IEEE Potentials, vol. 13, no 3,‎ , p. 20 (ISSN 0278-6648, DOI 10.1109/45.310923) :

    « Essentially there are only three ways to protect computer software under the law: patent it, register a copyright for it, or keep it as a trade secret. »

  9. (en) Jean Solatan, Advances in software economics: A reader on business models and Partner Ecosystems in the software industry, Norderstedt, Germany, BOD, (ISBN 978-3-8448-0405-8)
  10. « Commercial License for OEMs, ISVs and VARs », sur MySQL.com, Oracle, (consulté le ) : « Oracle makes its MySQL database server and MySQL Client Libraries available under both the GPL and a commercial license. As a result, developers who use or distribute open source applications under the GPL can use the GPL-licensed MySQL software, and OEMs, ISVs and VARs that do not want to combine or distribute the MySQL software with their own commercial software under a GPL license can purchase a commercial license. »
  11. Armin Ronacher, « Licensing in a Post Copyright World », sur Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings, (consulté le ) : « The AGPLv3 was a terrible success, especially among the startup community that found the perfect base license to make dual licensing with a commercial license feasible. MongoDB, RethinkDB, OpenERP, SugarCRM as well as WURFL all now utilize the AGPLv3 as a vehicle for dual commercial licensing. The AGPLv3 makes that generally easy to accomplish as the original copyright author has the rights to make a commercial license possible but nobody who receives the sourcecode itself through the APLv3 inherits that right. I am not sure if that was the intended use of the license, but that's at least what it's definitely being used for now. »
  12. Jack M. Germain, « FOSS in the Enterprise: To Pay or Not to Pay? », sur LinuxInsider, ECT News Network, Inc., (consulté le )
  13. Paul Rubens, « 6 Reasons to Pay for Open Source Software », sur CIO, CXO Media Inc., (consulté le ) : « Open source software is free to download, modify and use, but that doesn't mean it's not worth paying for sometimes. If you're using open source software in a commercial, enterprise capacity, here are six reasons why you should pay for free software. »
  14. (en) Robert McMillan, « Red Hat Becomes Open Source’s First $1 Billion Baby », Wired,‎ (lire en ligne) :

    « Other companies have made big money selling Linux — Intel, IBM, Dell, and others have used it as a way to sell hardware and support services — but Red Hat has managed the tricky business of building a software platform that big businesses will pay for. »

  15. Gervase Markham, « Mozilla Foundation Open Letter Orders Unofficial Mozilla Merchandise Sellers to Stop, Legal Action Hinted », sur MozillaZine, (consulté le )
  16. « Wikipedia Store », Wikimedia Foundation, (consulté le )
  17. Samantha Gartner, « Moodle will always be an open source project », sur opensource.com, (consulté le )
  18. Martin Dougiamas, « Moodle: a case study in sustainability », sur OSS Watch, University of Oxford, (consulté le )
  19. « How do the Moodle Partners work? » [archive du ], sur Moodle, (consulté le )
  20. « The Moodle Trademark », sur Moodle, (consulté le )
  21. Steve Kolowich, « Blackboard's Open-Source Pivot », sur Inside Higher Ed, (consulté le )
  22. Rani Molla, « Hacktivist Richard Stallman takes on proprietary software, SaaS and open source », sur Gigaom, Knowingly, Inc., (consulté le ) : « He (...) claims software as a service (SaaS) is inherently bad because your information goes through a server beyond your control and that server can add additional software when it likes. »
  23. (en) Bobbie Johnson, « Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman », The Guardian,‎ (lire en ligne) :

    « Web-based programs like Google's Gmail will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time, according to the free software campaigner »

  24. « Licenses », sur GNU Project, Free Software Foundation (consulté le ) : « We recommend that people consider using the GNU AGPL for any software which will commonly be run over a network. »
  25. Michael Tiemann, « GNU Affero GPL version 3 and the "ASP loophole" », Open Source Initiative, (consulté le )
  26. « Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses », sur GNU Project, Free Software Foundation, (consulté le )
  27. Joey-Elijah Sneddon, « Will You Help Change The Way Open-Source Apps are Funded? », OMGUbuntu, (consulté le ) : « Lunduke is pledging to open-source and distribute his portfolio of hitherto paid software – which includes the Linux distro management simulator Linux Tycoon - for free, under the GPL, if he can reach a donation-driven funding goal of $4000/m. Reaching this goal, Lunduke says, 'will provide proof for others, who would also like to move their software businesses to be open source, that it is doable.' »
  28. Elizabeth Naramore, « SourceForge.net Donation System », sur SourceForge, Slashdot Media, (consulté le )
  29. Mozilla Foundation, « Mozilla Foundation Places Two-Page Advocacy Ad in the New York Times », (consulté le )
  30. Ingrid Marson, « New York Times runs Firefox ad », cnet.com, (consulté le ) : « Fans of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser who funded an advertisement in The New York Times will finally get to see their names in print on Thursday. »
  31. « {{{1}}} »
  32. Joris Evers, « Offering a bounty for security bugs », sur CNET, CBS Interactive, (consulté le )
  33. « Mozilla Foundation Announces Security Bug Bounty Program », sur Mozilla Foundation, Mountain View, California, (consulté le )
  34. Bryan Lunduke, « Open source gets its own crowd-funding site, with bounties included - Bountysource is the crowd-funding site the open source community has been waiting for. », networkworld.com, (consulté le ) : « Many open source projects (from phones to programming tools) have taken to crowd-funding sites (such as Kickstarter and indiegogo) in order to raise the cash needed for large-scale development. And, in some cases, this has worked out quite well. »
  35. a et b Timothy Arceri, « Help improve OpenGL support for the Linux Graphics Drivers », Indiegogo, (consulté le ) : « Helping fund the time for me to become a Mesa contributor and document the experience to make it easier for others to understand where to start with the Mesa codebase. Many people have brought up the idea of crowd sourcing open source driver development. This is a small scale experiment to see if it could actually work. »
  36. Michael Larabel, « Crowd-Funding Is Back For Another Mesa Extension », sur Phoronix,
  37. Michael Larabel, « Valve Has Another Linux Graphics Driver Developer Working On Open-Source AMD », sur Phoronix,
  38. « Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - Dedicated Developer », Kickstarter,
  39. « Multipocalyptic Roguelike Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Turns To Kickstarter » [archive du ]
  40. Julie Marchant, « Julie Marchant is creating libre video games », sur Patreon
  41. (en-US) « Business Models for Founders, CEOs, and Platform builders. », Dynamic Applications,‎ (lire en ligne)
  42. John Callaham, « Report: Google paying AdBlock Plus to not block Google's ads », neowin.com, (consulté le ) : « Google is paying money to Eyeo, the company behind AdBlock Plus, so that its ads get through the browser ad remover. »
  43. Katherine Hunt, « Sourceforge quarterly profit surges as revenue rises », marketwatch.com, (consulté le ) : « Software Corp., late Thursday reported third-quarter net earnings of $6.49 million, or 9 cents a share, up from $997,000, or 2 cents a share, during the year-ago period. Pro forma earnings from continuing operations were $2.1 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with $1.2 million, or 2 cents a share, last year. The Fremont, Calif.-based maker of computer servers and storage systems said revenue for the three months ended April 30 rose to $10.3 million from $7.9 million. Analysts, on average, had forecast a per-share profit of 2 cents on revenue of $12 million. »
  44. « SourceForge Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2009 Financial Results » [archive du ]
  45. Eskild Hustvedt, « Our new way to meet the LGPL » [archive du ], (consulté le ) : « You can use a special keyword $ORIGIN to say 'relative to the actual location of the executable'. Suddenly we found we could use -rpath $ORIGIN/lib and it worked. The game was loading the correct libraries, and so was stable and portable, but was also now completely in the spirit of the LGPL as well as the letter! »
  46. a et b Modèle:Cite av media
  47. Modèle:Cite av media
  48. « TTimo/doom3.gpl », GitHub, (consulté le ) : « Doom 3 GPL source release [...] This source release does not contain any game data, the game data is still covered by the original EULA and must be obeyed as usual. »
  49. « STEEL STORM EPISODE 1 LIMITED USER SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT », steel-storm.com (consulté le ) : « For the purpose of this Agreement, the Art Assets include pk3 archive inside of 'steelstorm/gamedata/' folder that contain two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of graphic art, photographs, prints and art reproductions, maps, charts, diagrams, models, and technical drawings, sound effects and musical arrangements, documentation and tutorial videos, and are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. The Engine, which includes Windows, Linux and Mac binaries, and the Engine's source code, are licensed under GNU GPL v2 license. »
  50. Kristina Simpson, « LICENCE », sur anura-engine - GitHub, (consulté le )
  51. frogatto, « License », sur GitHub : « CC-BY 3.0 LICENSE [...] assets under copyright »
  52. Iwan Gabovitch, « Humble Indie Bundle's Source Releases »,  : « Another game which is commercial (on iDevices) and has FOSS code and closed art [...] is Frogatto. »
  53. Nick, « Arx Fatalis source code, patch released! », bethblog.com, (consulté le )
  54. Michael Larabel, « id Software's Softdisk Open-Sources Some Really Old Games », Phoronix, (consulté le )
  55. Tom Ohle, « Straight out of the Dungeon, Arx Fatalis invades GOG.com », sur Develop-Online.net, Warsaw, Poland,
  56. Richard Stallman, « On-line education is using a flawed Creative Commons license », stallman.org, (consulté le ) : « In my view, nonfree licenses that permit sharing are ok for works of art/entertainment, or that present some party's viewpoint (such as this article itself). Those works aren't meant for doing a practical job, so the argument about the users' control does not apply. Thus, I do not object if they are published with the CC-BY-NC-ND license, which allows only noncommercial redistribution of exact copies. »
  57. « Eben Moglen, speaking about GPLv3 in Barcelona »
  58. (en) « gnu.org », sur www.gnu.org (consulté le )
  59. Bruce Montague, « Why you should use a BSD style license for your Open Source Project - GPL Advantages and Disadvantages », FreeBSD, (consulté le ) : « In contrast to the GPL, which is designed to prevent the proprietary commercialization of Open Source code, the BSD license places minimal restrictions on future behavior. This allows BSD code to remain Open Source or become integrated into commercial solutions, as a project's or company's needs change. In other words, the BSD license does not become a legal time-bomb at any point in the development process. In addition, since the BSD license does not come with the legal complexity of the GPL or LGPL licenses, it allows developers and companies to spend their time creating and promoting good code rather than worrying if that code violates licensing. »
  60. Andy Oram, « How Free Software Contributed to the Success of Steve Jobs and Apple », radar.oreilly.com, (consulté le ) : « the BSD license allowed Apple to keep its changes proprietary »
  61. Michael Larabel, « NVIDIA Drops Their Open-Source Driver, Refers Users To VESA Driver », sur Phoronix,  : « The xf86-video-nv driver has been around that provides very basic 2D acceleration and a crippled set of features besides that (no proper RandR 1.2/1.3, KMS, power management, etc.) while the code has also been obfuscated to try to protect their intellectual property. »
  62. « What is free software? », sur Free Software Foundation : « Obfuscated “source code” is not real source code and does not count as source code. »
  63. « Reasoning behind the "preferred form" language in the GPL », lwn.net, (consulté le )
  64. Sprewell, « Towards A Real Business Model For Open-Source Software », sur Phoronix,
  65. a et b (en) Alexander J Martin, « MySQL daddy Widenius: Open-source religion won't feed MariaDB », The Register,‎ (lire en ligne)
  66. Simon Phipps, « Uproar: MariaDB Corp. veers away from open source », sur InfoWorld,
  67. « id Software releases Doom 3 source code » [archive du ], sur The H Open,
  68. Spanner Spencer, « id Software makes iPhone Wolfenstein open source », sur PocketGamer.co.uk,
  69. Joe Siegler, « Shadow Warrior Source Code Released », 3D Realms,
  70. « Games », 3D Realms : « Selected games have had their source code released by us. These games are: Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Rise of the Triad, Word Whiz, Beyond the Titanic, Supernova, & Kroz. You can obtain these from our downloads page. »
  71. John Andersen, « Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis, Part 1 », Gamasutra, (consulté le ) : « The existence of decaying technology, disorganization, and poor storage could in theory put a video game to sleep permanently -- never to be played again. Troubling admissions have surfaced over the years concerning video game preservation. When questions concerning re-releases of certain game titles are brought up during interviews with developers, for example, these developers would reveal issues of game production material being lost or destroyed. Certain game titles could not see a re-release due to various issues. One story began to circulate of source code being lost altogether for a well-known RPG, preventing its re-release on a new console. »
  72. John Bell, « Opening the Source of Art » [archive du ], Technology Innovation Management Review, (consulté le ) : « [...]that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming. The community was predictably upset. Instead of giving up on the game, users decided that if Activision wasn't going to fix the bugs, they would. They wanted to save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision lost interest. With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums, they were eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II's source code in October of 2003. »
  73. « NETSCAPE ANNOUNCES PLANS TO MAKE NEXT-GENERATION COMMUNICATOR SOURCE CODE AVAILABLE FREE ON THE NET » [archive du ], Netscape Communications Corporation, (consulté le ) : « BOLD MOVE TO HARNESS CREATIVE POWER OF THOUSANDS OF INTERNET DEVELOPERS; COMPANY MAKES NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR AND COMMUNICATOR 4.0 IMMEDIATELY FREE FOR ALL USERS, SEEDING MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE AND NETCENTER BUSINESSES »
  74. « MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Netscape Communications and open source developers are celebrating the first anniversary, March 31, 1999, of the release of Netscape's browser source code to mozilla.org », Netscape Communications, (consulté le ) : « [...] The organization that manages open source developers working on the next generation of Netscape's browser and communication software. This event marked a historical milestone for the Internet as Netscape became the first major commercial software company to open its source code, a trend that has since been followed by several other corporations. Since the code was first published on the Internet, thousands of individuals and organizations have downloaded it and made hundreds of contributions to the software. Mozilla.org is now celebrating this one-year anniversary with a party Thursday night in San Francisco. »
  75. Brian Proffitt, « StarOffice Code Released in Largest Open Source Project » [archive du ], linuxtoday.com, (consulté le ) : « Sun's joint effort with CollabNet kicked into high gear on the OpenOffice Web site at 5 a.m. PST this morning with the release of much of the source code for the upcoming 6.0 version of StarOffice. According to Sun, this release of 9 million lines of code under GPL is the beginning of the largest open source software project ever. »
  76. Yochai Benkler, « Freedom in the Commons: Towards a Political Economy of Information », Duke Law Journal, vol. 52, no 6,‎ (lire en ligne)
  77. (en) Dina ElBoghdady, « Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation », Washington Post,‎ (lire en ligne)
  78. (en) Jacqui Cheng, « VLC for iOS vanishes 2 months after eruption of GPL dispute », Ars Technica,‎ (lire en ligne)
  79. Steven Vaughan-Nichols, « No GPL Apps for Apple's App Store » (consulté le )
  80. « Changing the VLC engine license to LGPL » (consulté le )
  81. (en) Casey Johnston, « VLC media player returns to the iOS App Store after 30-month hiatus », Ars Technica,‎ (lire en ligne)

Further reading

Modèle:Further cleanup