RE: [ba-ohs-talk] Ideagraph 0.5 release (+source)
>But I think that I am not good enough a lawyer to figure out the
>license, (01)
Heh, I am not a lawyer either, which is why the license is currently so
vague. (02)
>most people use only OSI approved open source licenses, because they
>see that the author wants to submit it to a public body. I have seen
>too many GUI applications that start as semi-open source and then are
>sold off later, leaving the users in a bad situation.
>
>I dont know if I can use this app in a GPLed environment and distribute
>it as part of my GPLd application? (03)
I haven't yet figured out quite how to do this yet, but perhaps if I explain
the intention you may have suggestions. For a start, there has to be a
commercial 'Ideagraph - The Application', as I've had some (low-level)
commercial funding on this basis. There's also the consideration that I've
be working on this instead of for-money jobs (I usually do freelance tech
writing), so my finances are pretty dire at present, and hopefully 'The
Application' will eventually cover the lost earning time. Note the intended
market for 'The Application' is the general computer user, rather than
tech-savvy developers. (04)
The other side of the coin is that I'd far rather this stuff was all
entirely open source, for the various well-known reasons. But some kind of
cover is needed to help prevent simple rebranding/reselling, or the
production of something in the same space that appeared as a competitive
(possibly free) alternative. So the current compromise is to make the source
available but limit its use elsewhere. It probably is over-defensive at
present, and I've been trying to figure out ways of opening it up without
compromising the commercial angle. Dual licensing has been suggested, but
IANAL so haven't really sussed this out yet. My original idea was to release
component parts under a GPL-like license, but keep the application binaries
ringfenced. This still sounds alright in principle, but in practice it's a
bit time consuming (and confusing) trying to wrap things up in this way. (05)
Things aren't as black & white as simply open/closed in any case - I've
recently being contacted by someone who wants to use Ideagraph as a front
end for an (open source) repository system they're working on. They'll be
using my material to help bootstrap theirs, and at the end of the day
Ideagraph (the Pay-For Application or the Personal Use Only code) will
probably be just one of several front ends for their system. Helping them
get their stuff together will help rationalise the design of mine - both
parties gain. (06)
Anyhow, I'm very much open to suggestions. (07)
Cheers,
Danny. (08)