AKA: Re-licensing
Payments of a company for removing your brand from the OSS product and re-selling it under their own brand (maybe with additional features / plugins). The open-source software is monetized by selling a license to re-license the OSS - often generating one-time income with options to generate recurring revenue.
Requires:
- License contract describing where, when, and how the brand can be removed (and the price)
Variants & Options:
- One-time use: Removing the brand for an event or product (version).
- Prolonged use: Removing the brand for several month or years.
- N/A
| Characteristics | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Effort to set-up | Weeks | Requires creation of legal documents |
| Effort to maintain | Low | Depends on the popularity and size of target group |
| Cost to set-up | Medium | Will require a lawyer to setup the license and contracts |
| Cost to maintain | Low | Will cause costs for legal or tax related stuff (but should be covered by income) |
| One-time Income | High | Depends on OSS popularity |
| Recurring Income | High | Depends on OSS popularity |
| Income Predictability | Medium | Might degrade if similar projects become more attractive |
| Full income Threshold | 50- | |
| Recipient | C | |
| Additional Work | Low | Usage verification and contract negotiation |
| Visibility | Low | Constant marketing necessary |
| Necessity to pay | Medium | Only you can allow re-license but users can use the licensed OSS |
| Entry Threshold | Medium | Requires contracts |
| Countervalue | White Label | |
| Scalability | Medium | Scales with the number of companies |
| Effort for marketing | Medium | Depends on OSS popularity |
| Competitors | None | At least not for your brand |
| Software types | Special | Best for stand-alone systems with third-party users (e.g., blogs, LMS, etc.) |