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berneout / big-time-license

a public LICENSE that makes software free for noncommercial and small-business use, with a guarantee that fair commercial terms will be available for everyone else
https://bigtimelicense.com
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Adjust Revenue and Finance Figures by Economy Size? #19

Open kemitchell opened 2 years ago

kemitchell commented 2 years ago

Should the revenue and finance thresholds for small business status be adjusted by the size of the local economy? For example, should we adjust the 1,000 USD figures by purchasing power parity in the country where the company pays taxes?

This could result in outcomes where, for example, a United States company earning $900k in revenue last year remains a small business, but a company making substantially less in India does not. That in turn could make Big Time a more appealing license for developers in India, who likely want to sell commercial-use licenses to local firms.

namandixit commented 2 years ago

Since INR is far weaker than USD, I'm of the opinion that Indian developers would actually want to sell commercial license to US/MNC firms.

In addition, Indian developers may actually want to allow more leeway to local firms, for the sake of creating deeper relationship (always easier in shared culture), abide with any protectionist Government policies (officially stated or otherwise), or simply because of the risk inherent in a developing economy.

namandixit commented 2 years ago

Another issue with using PPP is that it would advantage a western company using third-world labour, and disadvantage companies using local labour (whether in developed or developing countries). That could possibly be considered unfair.

kemitchell commented 2 years ago

@namandixit, thanks for thoughts.

I agree that this change could produce strange results. It would essentially define "small business" as "small relative to its local economy". With such changes, developers from, say, the United States who chose Big Time would exclude more businesses from India. And developers from India who chose Big Time would exempt a great many businesses in the United States who they might otherwise prefer to charge.

I'm also mindful that this would make the license terms more complicated.