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I have a client that wants to opensource their project to receive contributions and leave the code as a public good. The software might be used by individual institutions, meaning each institution might have its own implementation running.

But the client also wants to have an agreement with each of the institutions that want to use the code and have their own software running.

Is there any opensource license that I can use for this? or another tool?

I am a bit lost reading a lot about opensource licenses, can you give me a few clues on where to dig more on this?

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    I don't get it. You want open source, but also want to require that every user signs a contract with you? Requirement to sign a contract (=agreement) is the definition of proprietary
    – planetmaker
    Apr 20 at 23:37
  • Are you looking for something like a source available license? That would not be considered 'open source' based on the definition we use here.
    – Martin_in_AUT
    Apr 21 at 10:44
  • Thanks. I'm trying to get a grasp around this. Maybe the answer it's not even opensource but another kind of license. I will take a look at the source available licenses.
    – Ezequiel Flores
    Apr 21 at 15:04
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    might be possible to use an open source license and enforce an usage agreement through an EULA?
    – Ezequiel Flores
    Apr 21 at 16:00
  • open source means anyone can use it
    – user253751
    Apr 21 at 19:34

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I have a client that wants to opensource their project to receive contributions and leave the code as a public good. [...] But the client also wants to have an agreement with each of the institutions that want to use the code and have their own software running.

These two requirements are mutually-incompatible, not just with free software licences, but to some extent with software licensing generally. Even if your client sells only individual licences to specified institutions, and those licences are standard proprietary licences (no permission to copy, modify, distribute copies, etc.), some jurisdictions hold that the licensee can sell their license on if certain conditions are met, even if the language of the licence says it's non-transferable.

By the time your client has bound the licence up such that the software can only be run by institutions with whom the client has an agreement, it will be so constrained that nobody in their right minds will run it, and it definitely won't qualify as an open-sourced, public good.

Your client can have the warm feeling that comes from creating genuinely-free software (in which case we can advise on the specific licence), or they can have the questionable feeling that comes from total control over how their creation is used. They can't have both.

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