[plug] Software License Evaluation

Onno Benschop onno at itmaze.com.au
Tue Jun 1 13:20:12 WST 2004


I've read all the contributions to this thread, both to the list and
private ones and think I understand better where I stand. For that I
thank you.

I think I understand the issues enough to make a series of statements
and I'd love to hear what you think about it:

     1. As an IT consultant, I derive income from hiring out my brain.
        The most common form this takes is writing software. The
        software I've written over several years has now gotten to the
        point where I have been asked to sell it to clients.
     2. If I license the software under the GPL - bearing in mind that
        the code takes the form of a Web-Application written in PHP -
        then I can charge the client for the purchase of the software.
     3. There is no need for me to provide my application free of charge
        to anyone, but of course the client is free to do with it what
        they like.
     4. In turn, the client is obliged to give any changes to the source
        code back to me - either directly, or via a download - but
        *only* if they re-distribute my application to another party.
     5. Finally, I can include their modifications to my code if I feel
        like it and any developer community that may or may not appear
        will be initially sourced from the client base.
     6. At some stage I might decide to release the application for free
        to the world, but I'm not obliged to do so.
     7. I can continue to derive income from the sale of the
        application, add extra modules on an agreed brain for hire
        charge and could decide to include such developed modules into
        the code or not.
     8. I have the option to decide if I wish to charge differential
        rates for different combinations of modules.
     9. I may also decide to include x-number of support calls, updates,
        bug-fixes, whatever, associated with the application as sold to
        the client.

Is there anything in the above that raises eyebrows anywhere?

Onno Benschop 

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