From: Kevin Smith <sent@...>
Date: 2001-01-12T16:35:47+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:9187] Re: Licensing issues

Robert Feldt wrote:
>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

If at all possible, *please* find an existing 
license that is close enough to what you want. We 
already have too many license variations. This 
also allows you to leverage whatever legal work 
someone else has already done. The really popular 
open source-related ones I can think of are: GPL, 
LGPL, Ruby, artistic, and BSD. You might also 
look at: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-
list.html

>Would this be a major hindrance to wide-spread use of SW?

It would hinder. Not sure to what degree.

>Have you seen any licenses similar to the one above?

What you are proposing actually sounds somewhat 
like shareware. Here's a page that seems to be 
along the lines of what you're suggesting (except 
that the "donation" goes to the author :-): 
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/9910/license.htm


How would people feel about stuff in the RAA with 
a dual license: if it's used in a non-commercial 
product (say, GPL or Ruby license), then GPL 
applies. Otherwise, it's shareware requiring a 
$xxx one-time donation to the Xxxx organization. 
Thoughts?

JX used to have a similar license, but they seem 
to have gone closed/corporate recently. One of 
the reasons I avoided JX in my personal work was 
their commercial license. If I ever decided to go 
commercial, they didn't have a set price--it was 
kind of "ask us and we'll figure something out". 
I didn't want to invest time learning something 
that I might have to abandon later. Fixed price 
and guaranteed approval are important.

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

Not at all hypothetical. As soon as an 
appropriate project comes along at work, I'll be 
pushing hard to use Ruby.

Kevin