Ya that's my thought too. The logistics of running a business are different (and in my mind easier to solve) than the logistics of programming, and should be solvable in a more general way. Also there is a social aspect to it. It's pretty obvious in any project who is pulling their weight (at least for people on the inside).
Why is this downvoted? "License an open source formula based on the value of short/long contributions" sounds like LOC to me. Dividing income fairly is the core issue. Solve that and the rest is easy. The problem is that this is very hard.
Also, unfortunately I think income is also a difficult split to have happen. If you are looking for scale, at some point, some investment will be needed. Even with scalable resource architectures, two co-founders can only answer so many customer communications. That recapitalization will need to be factored in based on a communally accepted baseline. In essence, you can factor in a unit-based investiture that pays out dividends on meeting certain business liquidity scenarios and operating rules. Those units can be sold or traded at will, with new buy in "partners" accepting the new operating license of the business. Remaining unit holders vote changes to the operating license.
I give it 4 months and the SEC will come knocking, guaranteed.
Yea I don't think lines would work ;) If bloatware was bad, just imagine. Short/Long contributions refers to the short term and long term implications of contributions from software developers. Company produces product to solve problem. Product contributions in no particular order or coherence: 1) Long term smart growth-focused architecture 2) Long term product strategy 3) Short term code quality (bug count) 4) Short term, feature suggestion & consumption ratio 5) Customer vs. Company/Product satisfaction rating to solve problem 6) Software's Resource Utilization 7) Customer speed-to-solution average, etc, etc.