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Research on *delayed open source publication* (DOSP): the practice of
publishing a software release under a proprietary license initially,
then later (usually in a planned fashion) publishing that release's
source code under an open source license.
While delayed open source publication has been somewhat rare, there are
some examples of it across the history of open source -- in fact, some
of the examples (e.g., Aladdin Ghostscript) predate the coining of the
term "open source". To the best of our knowledge, when software
authors have done this it has usually been in a fairly predictable
way. For example, when release N goes out under a proprietary
license, release N-1 is then (re)published under an open source
license.
This repository is a collection of research, and a resultant
[whitepaper](https://opensource.org/delayed-open-source-publication),
about various examples of DOSP and show how they are alike or
different. We also analyze the effects (if any) of this practice
generally on open source as a field. Our purpose is to provide
accurate historical description and objective analysis; our work here
represents no position on the desirability or undesirability of
delayed open source publication.
This research was supported by the [Open Source Initiative
(OSI)](https://opensource.org/). The report is now completed and
published at
[opensource.org/delayed-open-source-publication](https://opensource.org/delayed-open-source-publication).
You can email us at `dosp-research {_AT_} opensource.org` or [file a
ticket](https://code.librehq.com/ots/dosp-research/-/issues/new) to
contact us. While we occasionally indulge in light maintenance and
error correction in the LaTeX source, that's infrequent and done
entirely at our discretion. We may prepare an updated second edition
some day; if you're interested in being involved in that, please let
us know.
## Building the whitepaper PDF from LaTeX source
To build the whitepaper from LaTeX source, use [OTS
DocTools](https://code.librehq.com/ots/ots-doctools).