One morning, I'll open GitHub, coffee in hand, to go through the PRs on /dev/null like I always do. I'll filter on mine, check the reviewers' feedback, and that's when I'll see it, at the top of the page: a label I've never seen before. "License changed: All Rights Reserved (read-only)". The admin will have switched the project from an open source license to a proprietary one: the code stays viewable, but no one has the right to copy, modify, or redistribute it anymore.
I'll read the label twice. I'll click on the LICENSE file, then on the commit history, to understand when and why. No announcement, no discussion with the contributors, no message in the issues. I'll think about my PRs, the hours spent on the dev-null.sh code, and everyone who contributed believing they were giving their work to a common good. From now on, even my own code would be read-only for me.
Still in shock, I'll go back to the /dev/null website to check that it wasn't a mistake. And there, in a banner, a new label: "/dev/null is for sale."
Everything will suddenly make sense. The license won't have changed by accident: the code will have been locked down so it can be sold without any fork lowering its value. I'll close my laptop for a moment, then reopen GitHub, no longer to look at my PRs, but to write in the issues and ask the question every contributor will be asking: "What happens to our work?"
And then I'll wake up. It was all a dream. I was asleep the whole time, my coffee still hot on the desk, and the license file still says open source.
commit 18c1d3c