On Mar 8, I wrote a post on why Six Apart should open source Movable Type. A little less than three months later on Jun 5, Six Apart indeed announced the Movable Type Open Source Project in conjunction with the beta launch of version 4. The new open source project will consist of a GPL-licensed version of Movable Type to be released in the third quarter. At the same time, Six Apart makes it clear that they will continue to support commercial licensing of Movable Type.
In my original post, I suggested that MPL licensing be an option for Six Apart. Their decision to license Movable Type as GPL instead does have its advantages. By being committed to a dual licensing model: commercial and GPL, Six Apart provides two distinct options for different consumer needs. Although MPL licensing could have been more amenable to enterprise open source adoption, it might ironically have signaled a stronger shift towards a pure open source strategy, which might not be the best option for now in view of still early, albeit rapidly growing enterprise acceptance of open source. GPL licensing also keeps Movable Type license-compatible with LiveJournal, Six Apart’s other open source asset.
