Episode 109

How not to do Open Source Licensing, with Trigger.dev founders Matt Aitken and Eric Allam

November 21, 2024 · 50:05

There are more and more open source DevTools startups. I’ve interviewed dozens. But I am still confused about open source licenses. So I decided to ask questions to two people who actually understand them: my friends Eric and Matt - founders of open source background jobs tool Trigger.dev.

This episode is brought to you by WorkOS. If you're thinking about selling to enterprise customers, WorkOS can help you add enterprise features like Single Sign On and audit logs.

What we discuss:

Two Key Questions for License Selection
What are the benefits of permissive licenses?
What are the main licenses?
Why shouldn’t you write your own (open source) license?
What is Copyleft?
Post Open Source" Movement

(00:50) - Open Source Licensing
(18:18) - Protective Licensing
(23:12) - Copy Left Concept
(43:30) - Wordpress

Trigger:

Eric Allam - https://x.com/maverickdotdev
Matt Aitken - https://x.com/mattaitken
Trigger.dev https://trigger.dev/
JSON Hero https://jsonhero.io/

Licenses

MIT License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License - Matt’s “most permissive license”
Apache-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_License - “Like MIT but with trademarks”
FSL / Fair Source License https://fair.io/ - created by Sentry
Heather Meeker - Open Source Licencing expert https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathermeeker/
A practical guide to Open Source Licencing https://www.amazon.co.uk/Open-Source-Business-Practical-Licensing/dp/1544737645

References

Sentry https://sentry.io/welcome/
Redis https://redis.io/
Valkey https://valkey.io/
Clickhouse https://clickhouse.com/
Background to Continue.dev and PearAI https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/30/y-combinator-is-being-criticized-after-it-backed-an-ai-startup-that-admits-it-basically-cloned-another-ai-startup/

View episode transcript

Creators and Guests

Host

Jack Bridger

Host @ Scaling DevTools

Producer

Elliott Roche

Freelance Podcast Editor

Guest

Eric Allam — ☀️/trigger.dev

Founder at @triggerdotdev, the OSS serverless platform with no-timeouts. Member of the YC W23 batch. Also building https://t.co/FPMDqZC9Nn. #bitcoin

Guest

Matt – Trigger.dev

Founder @triggerdotdev (YC W23), co-creator of https://t.co/JuvHAucFQf. Programmer and winner of 2 Apple App of the Years

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How not to do Open Source Licensing, with Trigger.dev founders Matt Aitken and Eric Allam

Creators and Guests

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