[Drawkit] DrawKit licensing hassles

[Brad Larson]

On Sep 10, 2008, at 6:56 PM, Graham Cox wrote:

>> As anyone should've learned from the history, flip-flopping around
>> licensing issues is a sure way to kill public interest in an open
>> source project. With all due respect, Graham, I really appreciate
>> the gigantic work you have put into the DrawKit. But please,
>> make up your mind.  Do you want the DrawKit to be widely adopted
>> or not?
>>
>> Licensing is a bit like cryptography - invent a new algorithm and
>> be sure to be cracked by a coffee break. Developers hate licenses.
>> Why make things harder than they need to be?
>
> Yes, and I am one of those developers! I hate licenses too, I don't  
> want to spend a lot of time worrying about the nuances of what this,  
> that or the other license *means*, I just want to get on with my  
> project(s). That's why the recurring issues of the DK license are as  
> much a pain in the butt for me as anyone else.
>
> It's very simple. I am happy for you to use DrawKit in any way you  
> see fit provided: a) I get credit for the work I did; b) I'm  not  
> liable if you use it for something that causes a nuclear explosion  
> or some other terrible disaster; and c) I'm not obliged to support  
> your derived products in any way.
>
> However, there's another thing. I have spent a huge amount of time  
> on this, time which not only have I not earned a penny from, but  
> which actually costs me money. So if Microsoft or some other rich  
> corporation wanted to use DK I don't see why they should do so for  
> free when they can spend more money from petty cash in half a day  
> than I could ever hope to earn in a lifetime. Does that seem fair?  
> So what I'm trying to achieve is to share the wealth with other  
> "little guys" like me, commercial included, but for those that can  
> easily afford it, to get some return for my effort. The problem is  
> how to tell apart one corporate user from another. There's no way to  
> do so except to take each case on its merits - I can't say, well, if  
> your gross income is this much DK costs x, if it's this, DK costs y.  
> So if you're a commercial developer, all you have to do is contact  
> me and find out what the "fee" is. Chances are it's zero, but if you  
> happen to be Microsoft, I'll probably expect you to pay something  
> because you can, and morally, you *should*, and we can negotiate  
> what that is.
>
> If you can think of a better way to resolve this I'd be very happy  
> to hear it, I don't like the added complexity either. I guess what  
> it amounts to is that there is a limit to my generosity - for over  
> twenty years now I've seen numerous people get very rich indeed from  
> software I've written for them, yet here I am wondering (literally)  
> whether I can afford to go to the supermarket this week. I just feel  
> it's time some of my efforts benefited me in a slightly more  
> tangible way than having a warm fuzzy feeling. Is that wrong?
>

I've been away for a bit, but I thought I'd chip in.  As a developer,  
I am perfectly content with the licensing structure as is.  As long as  
the license fees are reasonable, I would have no problem with paying  
them for a commercial application using DrawKit.  Payment logistics  
may be tricky, but they always are.

However, I'd like to provide an example of a different way to go.   
This weekend, I attended the C4[2] indie Mac developer conference and  
had a chance to hear Dr. Richard Hipp give a talk.  Dr. Hipp is the  
original author of the SQLite library, which he released into the  
public domain, completely unencumbered by licensing.  That library is  
used in so many devices and applications that it sounds like he now  
makes a comfortable living as a consultant for these large companies  
by helping them to implement it in their products.  People are paying  
for his expertise, not the library.  He was treated like a rock star  
at the conference.

I also discussed DrawKit with a number of people there, and every  
single one of them was amazed with the framework.  Quite a few were  
going to read up on the mailing list and see if they couldn't use it  
for one of their products.  Some were a little hesitant at the idea of  
paying for a framework in their commercial application, but most  
seemed open to the idea, as long as the license fee was not too high.   
All of them were surprised that they had not heard of this and  
wondered why people weren't making a bigger deal out of it.

______________________
Brad Larson
SonoPlot, Inc.
3030 Laura Lane, Suite 120
Middleton, WI 53562