Gumroad Did Not Become Open Source Today

Summary

Advisory: I am not a legal expert and there could likely be inaccuracies in this post. Today Gumroad announced that they’ve become open source, with this being echoed by the founder and on social sites like Hacker News: Unfortunately though, this uses a custom license which wouldn’t meet the widely regarded definition of open source, and therefore wouldn’t be widely regarded as open source so calling this open source could be misleading to many. Why is it not open source? The license sets limits upon open rights: Small Business and Exempt Organizations You may use the software under this license only if (1) your company has less than 1 million USD (2024) total revenue in the prior tax year, and less than 10 million USD (2024) GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), or (2) you are a non-profit organization or government entity. Adjust the revenue threshold for inflation according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index for all urban consumers, U.S. city average, for all items, not seasonally adjusted, 1982–1984=100 reference base. If you are a company and exceed either of the limits in (1), your license ends. You may contact the licensor to discuss an alternative license. Redistribution is also questionable from my non-legal-expert understanding since the license explicitly allows distribution while also not allowing sublicensing or license transfer: These terms do not allow you to sublicense or transfer any of your licenses to anyone else, or prevent the licensor from granting licenses to anyone else. These parts of the license go against the following requirements of the open source definition: 1. Free distribution Ignoring the questionable redistribution part of the license, it still limits distribution rights to only those meeting the “Small Business and Exempt Organizations”. 3. Derived Works Again, these are only allowed by those meeting the “Small Business and Exempt Organizations”. 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups License sp...