From: Robert Feldt <feldt@...>
Date: 2001-01-11T15:40:00+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:9114] Licensing issues

Hi,

I'm about to release some new stuff to RAA and started thinking about
licensing issues. I haven't had much practical experience from open-source
licensing issues so I'd appreciate your feedback:

What are the implications of using some semi-free license along the lines
of: "This software is free for any non-commerical use. For commercial use
you must inform the author and send a contribution of X$ for the continued
development of Ruby and this software (80% goes back to the Ruby community
for funding Ruby-promoting/supporting activities and 20% goes to
infrastructure (domain + web server etc) for this software). The source as
such is distributed under LGPL", ie. essentially LGPL with a proviso for
commerical use.

IMHO, this is not greedy (for small X, typically in the range
20..50$) since the cost is negligible for typical corps (?) and since
there are some basic costs with developing SW even if its "open-source".

Comments?
Would this be a major hindrance to wide-spread use of SW?
Will people be put of and start "parallel" projects for the same thing?
On a practical side, are there anywhere the Ruby money can be sent? 
Should we start some Ruby Foundation accepting donations and promoting
Ruby?
Have you seen any licenses similar to the one above?

Please note that I haven't really decided what I think of all these
licensing issues; I'm still contemplating different alternatives and
trying to see their implications.

BTW, commerical use is probably hypothetical at the current state of Ruby
development but this might/will change in the future, eh?!

Best regards,

Robert