Dual licensing

I am considering releasing a piece of code under dual license. The code would be as close to free software (free as freedom) as possible for non commercial use, but if someone makes money with this code, they would be required to purchase a commercial license for around 30-50€. "Making money" includes at least the following:
-the site where my code is used is for commercial purposes
or
-someone gets paid to build or configure a site which uses this code

Derivative works should be allowed, but I should be able to integrate these to the mainline of the code. A third party should not be able to relicense the code for commercial use.

Any suggestions?

I use this thread as an information source when considering the release of this plugin/component combination www.joomlapolis.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,38/func,view/id,33253/catid,23/

mikko

Post edited by: mikko, at: 2007/03/12 14:08

Hi Mikko
As a commercial plugin developer (and a great admirer of your work ), i hope i am in a good position to give some advice on this.

Firstly, the biggest issue (if not the only) when it comes to releasing a commercial software (or partially commercial as is your case) is "Support". With commercial, of course, you will have to be committed to provide support up to (at least) having the plugin/component up and running on the user's site. There is no such obligations with free projects of course.

Secondly, I think if a piece of code is good enough, it should be commercial all the way. That way, you can be sure only genuine and serious users will be acquiring and using your code, and that will make support that much easier. 30-50€ is a decent price from what I've read in the description. The only key to it is it remains opensource, and I have no doubt you will keep it that way (free as in freedom )

There will (and I am almost certain of this) come people with the typical argument of "free software" and "But i cannot afford it" etc. You will then have to ask yourself, how far do you wish to go when it comes to providing support. I'm sure you, like me, have a day job, and providing full time support is simply out of the question. Therefore it becomes necessary to, for want of a better word, "discourage" users who 1) have rather wrong ideas about open source, 2) who cannot afford 30-50€, which implies that, at least in my opinion, they 3) are not serious about their sites, whether development and or maintenance.

You may wonder why this is necessary. Well as mentioned in the first point, with a commercial software, the author should be committed to (at least) ensure that the plugin/component is running properly in the customer's site. However, if the price is too low, you will find yourself supporting lots of people who simple does not understand Joomla (or CB ), and you'll end up fixing/configuring/maintaining their sites for a variety of issues that are totally unrelated to your plugin/components. All they know, however, is that the plugin isn't working, but they do not understand that it is because of how they've misconfigured their site.

Lets just take joomlapolis for example. How many times have we come across questions on the forums that goes along the lines of "CB sucks! It doesn't work on my site!". But we both know fully well that CB *will* work, and that there's no reason it wouldn't work other than a misconfiguration or other issues that has nothing to do with the quality of CB in general. Even worse than the "CB sucks because it doesn't work" complaint is the "CB sucks because it doesn't work with the remote and rarely used component which I happen to use. Make CB compatible with it!!" one.

Personally, I release my codes in the spirit of sharing with people who are serious in their sites, and who require the features provided. However, I find myself "lacking" when compared to great people like the CB Team...I simply am not crazy enough to just throw weeks of work out for free to anyone just around the corner I think my strategy is sound in how it attracts only serious joomla users.

Just my 2 cents

Post edited by: p9939068, at: 2007/03/12 17:11

As a hobby none commercial user I can say that 50$ would be too much for me. 30$ sounds right and I think you will get much more money making the component even a bit cheaper - my suggestion would be 20 $.

I also think that commercial should be commercial all the way because many people would not pay a cent if they can have it for free easily.
The same goes for a component that is expensive. people will not bother paying and finally you will find the pluginn for download on shack.ru forums

So making it a bit cheaper you can make more money.

I think 20$ for an all commercial plugin would be perfect!

EVEN BETTER would be a free version that puts your site address on the footer of profiles (like joomlahacks.com smf bridge) and on donating you get an activation code that gets rid of that footer line!!!

ffaabbss wrote:

As a hobby none commercial user I can say that 50$ would be too much for me. 30$ sounds right and I think you will get much more money making the component even a bit cheaper - my suggestion would be 20 $.

I want to give this code free for non-commercial purposes. However, if someone profits, then a small fee is appropriate. The amount of the fee is currently a detail compared to the issue of finding the right license.

I also think that commercial should be commercial all the way because many people would not pay a cent if they can have it for free easily.
The same goes for a component that is expensive. people will not bother paying and finally you will find the plugin for download on shack.ru forums

Dual licensing has a its drawbacks, I agree. However, I believe that serious users are willing to pay a small fee rather than using a piece of software which shows on their website illegally.

EVEN BETTER would be a free version that puts your site address on the footer of profiles (like joomlahacks.com smf bridge) and on donating you get an activation code that gets rid of that footer line!!!

This would require that I distribute the plugin as a binary to prevent modifications. For example as a compiled for for Zend Optimizer. The problem is that an average site on a hosting provider could not run it because they lack the nescessary php extensions.

mikko

Thanks for this good post.

p9939068 wrote:

Hi Mikko
As a commercial plugin developer (and a great admirer of your work ), i hope i am in a good position to give some advice on this.

Firstly, the biggest issue (if not the only) when it comes to releasing a commercial software (or partially commercial as is your case) is "Support". With commercial, of course, you will have to be committed to provide support up to (at least) having the plugin/component up and running on the user's site. There is no such obligations with free projects of course.

This part is true, and I definitely plan to provide support if someone is paying for my code.

Secondly, I think if a piece of code is good enough, it should be commercial all the way. That way, you can be sure only genuine and serious users will be acquiring and using your code, and that will make support that much easier. 30-50€ is a decent price from what I've read in the description. The only key to it is it remains opensource, and I have no doubt you will keep it that way (free as in freedom )

It has to be open source, since most people cannot run compiled php. And I do not intend to purchase a php compiler.

The problem is, that I really would hate that people who are just running hobby sites e.g. could not use this.

I think that there is some money available from serious users who do not want to risk license violations on their public sites.

Just my 2 cents

Post edited by: p9939068, at: 2007/03/12 17:11

I think that it was more than two cents.

mikko

Post edited by: mikko, at: 2007/03/12 19:50

My suggestion would be to figure out what you would charge someone to develop the code. Display that amount on your site and allow serious users to purchase a copy for a minimum donation of $30+. Once the development amount is met or exceeded by donations then release the code with the dual license. That way you get paid for your work and still allow the non-commercial users access to your excellent product.