Isn't this just delayed open source?

Yes — that's the description. The novelty is naming the delay in advance.

What if the company changes hands?

The license transfers with the company. Written commitments to licensors survive acquisitions.

Answers/The movement queries

Why some software now promises to become open source on a schedule

A small number of vendors — us included — write a date into the license: on this day, the source code becomes public. The reasoning is economic and ethical in equal parts. Economically, it makes 'buy this now' fair: you pay for the years of active development, and after that the software belongs to the community. Ethically, it says out loud that a paid closed product should have a horizon, not a moat.

Where scheduled OSS fits well

Tools with a well-scoped job and a clear finish line. Encryption tools, file formats, small utilities — things that will be useful long after the maker has moved on. The date guarantees the utility outlives the shop.

Where it fits less well

Big platforms whose value depends on continuous new features. There, the treadmill logic actually holds — nobody wants a 'liberated' version of a product whose whole point is the current version.

Questions people actually ask

Isn't this just delayed open source?: Yes — that's the description. The novelty is naming the delay in advance.
What if the company changes hands?: The license transfers with the company. Written commitments to licensors survive acquisitions.

Take the island

Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.

€49MMXXVI· now ·
€39MMXXVII2027
€29MMXXVIII2028
€19MMXXIX2029
FreeMMXXX2030

the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030

Take the island — €49

pay once · no account · nothing leaves