software open-source-software
Is it possible to sell a software to enterprises, then release its source code for free?
<p>The title says it all. Out of curiosity and because I didn't find any result when searching about that, I'm asking here if it's technically possible to sell a software to an enterprise, then months later make it open source, or you have a kind of contract that completely disallow you from doing so ?</p>

<p>It depends on what you are selling to the enterprises.</p>

<ol>
<li>You could be selling just a licence to use the program, and retain all the rights on the source code.</li>
<li>You could be selling the rights to the source code.</li>
</ol>

<p>For #1, the source code is yours and you can do what it pleases with it<sup>1</sup>. In fact many programs offer both an open-source licence (which usually forces the user to make its changes to the code publicly available) and a commercial one (which allows the user to keep the modifications of the source code for themselves).</p>

<p>For #2, the source code is no longer yours so it is not up to you to decide what to do with it.</p>

<p><sup>1</sup>I am assuming no other agreements imposing limits on those; for example that none of your contracts to your customers have a clause forbidding you from making the code available to the public.</p>
