Re: [xmlvm-users] Licence issues

[Gergely K. <ger...@ma...>]

Hi,

I have a few thoughts (not terribly organized):
- it would be nice to have a commercial entity who owns the code legally.
Right now the CLAs have to be addressed to you (Arno Puder) personally. This
could be a problem for potential contributor businesses.
- It would be nice to have a commercial license for those who don't want or
just can't contribute (e.g. no resources...etc.) There are many businesses
who work like this. One in particular is ExtJS. I think that 2-300 USD /
seat would be reasonable for a major release (including minor releases).
Of course, this is only fair, if the product is reasonably complete, which
it is not currently (at least for Android -> IPhone porting). It also
assumes the notion of releases (major / minor releases, QA ... etc.)

- Offering linking exception (a type of "commercial license") is both good
and bad.

It is good, because it allows contributors to use the project for commercial
purposes.

It is bad, because they need to give up their rights to their own
contribution to do so. For example if someone creates killer feature X,
contributes it and gets a linking exception. Then you commercialize the
project and make much more revenue from killer feature X than the actual
value of the linking exception license is. I know that you all are
reasonable people, and would probably find a satisfying solution for all
parties in cases like this.
But having the rules set clear is a good thing.

- It is not clear how long a "linking exception" is valid. Is it valid until
1.0? 2.0? Who decides when a linking exception expires? Should it expire?

- The core developers have to decide whether they want to commercialize the
project in the near future.

- I think the bounty approach could help:
- Missing features could be entered into a ticketing system (please don't
start a ticket system bikeshed now :) )
- People could offer bounties for features
- One type of bounty is the linking exception
- Other type of bounty is of course money
- This way the price of the "commercial license" would be translated from
code to money, which can be later the base for the real commercial license
price
- Those who pay for the bounties should also get the linking exception
(based on some formula)
- This system would allow users to hire the core team (or other
contributors) to work on features that are important to them and willing to
pay for.
- There are many things that need to be thought out regarding this bounty
system, this is just a quick brainstorming.

Best Regards,
Gergely


2009/10/7 Arno Puder <ar...@pu...>

>
> I personally am absolutely fine to discuss this in public. For
> "contribution" we don't just assume fees but also code contributions. In
> some cases this is difficult: is a 1000 line patch always more worth
> than 100 lines? Certainly not. Does a one line patch to fix a bug
> already qualify to grant the linking exception? I'm inclined to say no.
> But I'd be more than happy to get feedback from you guys on what you
> consider to be a fair contribution in return for granting a linking
> exception. As I said before, we want XMLVM to succeed. So, suggestions
> please!
>
> Arno
>
>