COOL and COOLER Open Source Licensing Suite
The term "open source" has often been subject to strict interpretations and deep connections to questionable organizations. At IPv6rs, we believe in the core principles of open source—freedom to use, study, share, and improve software—without being tied down by specific organizations or brands.
Our Philosophy
Open source should be about free speech and innovation, not about conforming to the definitions or politics set by any particular group.
We noticed a hesitation among projects to label themselves as "open source" due to small deviations from "definitions" that have no authority over the projects and their right to freedom of speech or anything therein. To be fair, this chilling effect, while rooted in these organizations' business strategies to essentially co-opt the open source movement, is not actually propelled by said organizations. Instead, these consequences are the result of those who blindly consume these organizations' manufactured positions as gospel, and outright attack developers and their gifts pedantically (imagine the grammar police).
This restriction limits the creativity, collaboration, and security thereupon that open source stands for.
Independence and Identity
Many existing licenses are not only connected to, but actually promote and market organizations or brands we do not wish to affiliate with. For instance:
- MIT License - A deeply political organization that maintained ties with Jeffery Epstein and his colleagues for at least 15 years by their own admission.
- Apache License - While the web server (among many other things) with the same name are great software, the organization is named after a Native American tribe, which we find highly inappropriate.
- GPL License - Linked to Richard Stallman who worked at MIT with quite a few underaged persons and also publicly defended Jeffery Epstein's actions as it related to inappropriate activities with these underaged persons.
- BSD - Besides the fact that the Unabomber came from there, current Professor John Yoo wrote the torture memos for George W. Bush and, if that wasn't already enough, they were deeply embroiled in a pay-to-play college admissions scandal which, although only uncovered recently, was likely going on since the beginning.
If we wanted to be affiliated with these shitty brands, we'd be just as shitty.
Introducing COOL and COOLER
COOL (Commercial Operators Open Source License)
- Fully Permissive: Allows anyone to use, modify, distribute, and even sell the software.
- Unbranded: No ties to any organization, reflecting pure open-source values.
COOLER (Commercial Operators Open Source License with Enterprise Restriction)
- Protects Small Contributors: Adds a single restriction for commercial enterprises with over $1 million in revenue, to address a common open-source issue where large corporations benefit without contributing back.
Our Goal
By contributing COOL and COOLER, we aim to help open source developers reclaim the open-source narrative, ensuring independence and creating an environment where everyone benefits fairly. We believe that these licenses will help maintain the true spirit of open source while ensuring that contributors, especially smaller ones, are not overshadowed or exploited by larger entities.