[plug] Software License Evaluation

[Chris Caston]

On Mon, 2004-05-31 at 17:10, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> Onno Benschop wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> > 
> > My code has made it into the big league - in a small way - it's bypassed
> > the state of "custom solution" and has made it to "application".
> > 
> > I'm having many debates with myself on how I would licence this software
> > to the end-user. While I use GPL software everyday, I'm also in need of
> > money to pay the rent; I'm not employed by a "rich patron", who can
> > afford to pay my bills.
> > 
> > I'm looking for URLs to sites that allow me to evaluate, preferably
> > side-by-side some of the licensing options open to me.
> 
> Why not release two versions of it like Trolltech or Alladin do, and GPL 
> one of them with the other one under a commercial licence?  You can 
> either leave features out of the GPL version or leave it a few releases 
> behind.  There are no URLs that compare proprietary licences, because 
> proprietary licences tend not to be free to use (the licences I mean, 
> not the software), and there are so many variations in what people want. 
>   The main URL that compares free licences is http://www.opensource.org.

Also try and work out if anyone will actually volunteer to help develop
the code and if you youreself are commited enough to update the CVS for
the nightly builds. I know lots of projects that are *supposed* to be
open source but the CVS is out-of-date or has never been uploaded in the
first place.

Most of my CRM and ERP is run using open source LAMP based software that
I found on SourceForge but does not always have all the features that my
business needs. Later I plan to either sponsor the projects in question
or pay someone I know to alter the software. Of course this is dependent
on my financial situation.

thanks,

Chris Caston