I've been quite surprised by free software models (after discovering postcard ware), so I thought it might be worth asking.
I have an application I'm going to release as free software. However, in the case that I do not maintain it, or am unable to maintain it, it would be released as Open Source. Is there any kind of license like this?
[Please use comments and not answers to tell me why this is a bad idea.]
Thanks!
This is an unusual request, and I know of nothing set up for this.
I can think of three ways to do this: one is to put the relicensing in your will, one is to do it by escrow, and one is to put an explicit license on your software saying that it may be used under such-and-such a license after your death. I have no idea how any of these would work in detail, particularly with events such as marriage, divorce, and bankruptcy, and strongly recommend you consult a lawyer. Do not rely on software people on the internet to give you legal advice, particularly when you don't tell them where you live and/or do business.
You also need to consider who has the source, since the license isn't worth much without the source. (Indeed, if I can't get the source to GPLed software, I can't redistribute it the binaries legally.) Escrow might be the right way to go there.
Ask yourself:
If you don't have a problem to give away your software for free (as in speech, not in beer) at the end of the day, why not start just right now? Do you fear that others take your code and publish competing (although free) software? Forks rarely happen while a project is still under good maintainance. Expect people to start fiddling with your code exactly at the point where you stopped it.
Do you really think anyone would go into the trouble to find out whether he can take your software as free or not based on crude terms like yourself being "unable" to maintain it. How will people around the globe find out about your death, for example? Taking the risk of getting sued by you or your beneficiary or not being able to use his work anymore?
I would recommend you to release the software under the GPL3 from the start on. You keep control of your project anyway, nobody can force you to take patches, etc. Before a small software project gains big popularity, nobody will really bother to re-release altered versions of your software.
If you don't want to go that route, you need to ask your lawyer to take proper action in your name (release the software under a different license) when it becomes necessary. Or give a friend or relative of you the copyright and ask him to do it.
As David points out, the a license change like this isn't worth anything without the source code. Slapping a new license on something is trivial -- it's the process of releasing the source code that's also necessary.
I've heard of people setting up a dead-man's switch for other aspects of their digital lives. You could do the same here. Write a program that, if you don't check in for some period of time, will take the latest version of your source code, slap the GPL on it, and upload it to Sourceforge (or something like that).
You'd need to take some precautions, but no different from any other dead-man's switch. You'd need to make sure it's on a machine that will still be running after your death (e.g., not your home PC, if you think your family or the police will clean out your home, and if it's on a paid server that it's paid through your death + enough extra time). You'd need to make sure you don't accidentally trigger it early (e.g., if you go on vacation for a month!).
Alternatively, you could do it the old-fashioned way: a safety deposit box, or the like, with instructions for your lawyer/family to open it upon your death. It could include instructions to upload your source code to somewhere public. The upside would be that a lawyer might be more reliable than something you build yourself (e.g., they might have a good standard procedure for identifying when a client has died, and also know not to dispose of anything in that case). The downside is that then you'd need to physically transfer the latest copy of the source code to that safety deposit box regularly.