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arrsinghyesterday at 7:31 PM9 repliesview on HN

It took me a minute to recognize this as satire (thank you HN comments). However it does actually make sense - maybe this could be a way for OSS devs to get paid.

What if we did build a clean room as a service but the proceeds from that didn't go to the "Malus.sh" corporation, but to the owners / maintainers of the OSS being implemented. Maybe all OSS repos should switch to AGPL or some viral license with link to pay-me-to-implement.com. Companies that want to use that package go get their own custom implementation that is under a license strictly for that company and the OSS maintainer gets paid.

I wonder what the MVP for such a thing would look like.


Replies

gault8121yesterday at 11:15 PM

This site is not satire. You can actually pay on Stripe and it will create code for you. The site is written with satirical language but it is a real service.

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exceptioneyesterday at 8:30 PM

I am only 50% certain that your idea is expanding on the satire, if not: project owners can provide dual licensing. I'm sorry if you are serious and didn't understand you.

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manbashyesterday at 11:03 PM

Copyleft was intended as a principle to keep the software free (as in 'freedom'). Proposing to lock out certain areas of the codebase is directly opposite to this principle.

devyyesterday at 7:34 PM

LOL. Same here. But the footer disclaimer and testimonials gave it away immediately:

> "We had 847 AGPL dependencies blocking our acquisition. MalusCorp liberated them all in 3 weeks. The due diligence team found zero license issues. We closed at $2.3B." - Marcus Wellington III, Former CTO, Definitely Real Corp (Acquired)

> © 2024 MalusCorp International Holdings Ltd. Registered in [JURISDICTION WITHHELD].

> This service is provided "as is" without warranty. MalusCorp is not responsible for any legal consequences, moral implications, or late-night guilt spirals resulting from use of our services.

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internet_pointstoday at 9:28 AM

> satire

I'm sure they've already received offers from investors who wish to build the next torment nexus.

dworksyesterday at 10:33 PM

This could work out great, because the OSS devs can focus on building their project instead of marketing to businesses, running sales processes, consulting on implementation and supporting the implementation. No need to find corporate sponsors either.

85392_schoolyesterday at 8:24 PM

If you don't have any contributors, you could just directly relicense without rewriting the whole codebase. If you do, it would be rude to do this.

presentationtoday at 4:49 AM

Lol so instead of paying maintainers who already built the thing you want, we instead charge you to use AI to make countless copies of maintainers’ work and direct the profits back to the maintainers? That sounds like true satire.