Reverse Capital Risking as a Business Model Environment for Copyleft Projects Development
Definition of the model
Consider the following transaction between 3 partners (that can be individuals, businesses or any type of organization) A,B,C:
A has a new idea for an open-source project, that needs 50 k$ to be implemented.
B comes with 100 k$, betting that the result will become popular
C comes with 100 k$, betting that this project will be a waste, and won't reach popularity.
Based on this, A will spend 50 k$ to implement the project.
Of two things one:
Either the projects turns out to be popular, then, B takes back 150 k$, while C takes back nothing.
Or, the project does not gain popularity, then B takes back nothing, and C takes back 150 k$.
Remark : possibly A=B.
What makes it interesting
If you are a businessman or an inventor, or you know about (or you
could know about someone who has) a great idea of technological or
other development that you believe in, and you have some money, but you
don't want to ruin yourself for sure by investing this money in
something you will give away for the benefit of all humanity without
them saying thanks. Then you don't need to go for any copyright or
patents system: you can just decide to let it free and open source from
the start, and take the role of B.
If you are a businessman and you hear that someone has
a project, even it it sounds unconvincing at first, it can always be
worth taking a closer look. Well, more especially if there has already
been a candidate to take a share in the role of B. Then you will choose
to take the role of B or C depending on whatever you will believe about
it.
If, on the other hand, you just want to be a generous donor for free
software development or other resesearch in general, but you
acknowledge your total incompetence as to what projects can become
useful and popular, you don't need to invest in any bureaucratic
troubles of studying candidate projects in more details: you can just
decide to pick up any project and play the role of C for them. The more
you find stupidly failing projects where someone can be found to play
the role of B, and you contribute in the role of C, the more you
get profit that you can reinvest in the same way, until it
will become the chance to let useful things find the light of day.
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