Bear blog just switched from MIT to Elastic License after competitors kept forking their code to launch competing services.

Founder Herman Martinus: "It hurts to see something you've worked so hard on get copied with only a few hours of modification."

The new license allows code inspection, learning, and personal use - but blocks hosting as a competing service.

Why this matters:
• MIT/Apache licenses offer zero protection against direct competition
• Source-available licenses let you stay transparent while blocking free-riders
• Companies like Plausible, Grafana, and Sentry made similar moves
• AI coding tools make forking easier than ever

The lesson: Your code might be your moat, but your community and commitment are your real defensibility.

Source: herman.bearblog.dev/license

#startups #opensource