If I release my software under a Free World Licence, will I benefit from enhancements made to the software by free software hackers?
Partly. Experience demonstrates that hackers do not like to contribute to code that is being sold under commercial proprietary terms, even if the code is, in some sense, also free. For this reason, the Free World Licence does not allow enhancements made by contributors to the free version of a product to flow into the commercial proprietary version. Thus, if you release your commercial product under a Free World Licence, you do run the risk of a source fork taking place. Whether a fork does take place depends on the exact situation. An exception to this “Chinese Wall” arrangement are minor bugfixes and other minor enhancements, which may flow freely into the commercial version. This compromise serves all parties well because it provides the commercial vendor with the benefits of the “many eyeballs” debugging effect, while protecting hackers who contribute significant enhancements to the free version from having their work sold under proprietary terms. All this merely describes the defa
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