Changing to a more restrictive license has negative consequences (#880)

* Changing to a more restrictive license has negative consequences

Signed-off-by: David A. Wheeler <[email protected]>

* Tweak license change text

Signed-off-by: David A. Wheeler <[email protected]>

* Fix number of numbered item

Signed-off-by: David A. Wheeler <[email protected]>

* Add another example per WG request

Signed-off-by: David A. Wheeler <[email protected]>

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Signed-off-by: David A. Wheeler <[email protected]>

Author: david-a-wheeler

docs/Simplifying-Software-Component-Updates.md

@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ Consider the following whenever making changes that might change the component
 14. **Ensure you have an automated test suite that tests older and newer APIs**.
 15. **Attempt to anticipate likely future changes to an API, so that they will have fewer impacts on users**. For example, you might add an extra parameter like “flags” or “configuration” that enables adding capabilities later without changing the API for existing users.
 16. **Support subsetted functionality**. Code that can’t be executed can’t be exploited and functional changes won’t impact users. Therefore, consider making it easy to enable only a subset of the component’s functionality. Mechanisms for doing this include splitting functions into components (so users can choose a subset of them), providing a plug-in architecture (so users can choose their plug-ins), or a configuration system that allows users to enable or disable specific functions.
+17. **Avoid changing to more restrictive licenses**. Changing the software license to be more restrictive (e.g., OSS to non-OSS, or permissive to protective/copyleft) in a later version means that many past users may not be able or willing to use the later version.
 
 ## Component Users