Technology doesn’t solve anything. It’s a mechanism for leverage.

When we grant that power freely, without thought to the way that leverage will be applied by we abdicate our responsibility as technologists.

Sometimes this is done due to coercion (We gotta eat!) but sometimes it is done for ego (People won’t adopt my project if it’s not MIT!)

This is why it’s so important for us to consider alternative licensing models.

#OpenSource, (Like MIT) is powerful, in that it grants optionality quite broadly.

#FreeSoftware, (Like the GP) tempers that, in that it requires re-contributing some portion back to the commons.

#EthicalSource intends to create maximum optionality for non-malicious actors.

#CommunitySource prioritizes sustainability through mutually beneficial, enthusiastically consensual relationships.

It is both reductionist and limiting to view these initiatives as being in competition.

They are complementary, but may not always be interoperable.

For example, an #EthicalSource license May require downstream projects to add usage restrictions, which would make it “not open source”

A #CommunitySource project may require licensors or distributors to pay fees, which would violate #FreeSoftware principles.

My personal opinion is that these #EthicalSource and #CommunitySource licenses are best applied to the “rod” that connects the consumer of the software to it’s producer in order to generate leverage.

Let’s define some terms:

A consumer is anyone who interacts with, derives benefits, or incurs cost.

A producer is anyone who provides time, IP, data, or other assets for others.

Leverage is the economic value being created or captured.

In a complex, composable socioeconomic contexts the difference between a “rod” which connects producers and consumers and a “fulcrum” is fuzzy.

Is a web server a fulcrum or a rod? Does it create leverage on its own? Or does it need to be connected to something else in order for it to generate leverage?

The answer is ?maybe? NGINX Pro for example seems like a rod. It captures economic value in the form of licensing fees. However, it’s used within other contexts as a fulcrum.