Rist
Member
I and this guy were having a feud over the licensing restrictions for Cover Commander.
I am of the opinion that you can't use it for any commercial purpose.
He says that you can use it for making covers for yourself but not make e-covers and sell it!
Which one of us is right?
Commercial use is any activity connected to the generation of income.
If making the covers isn't connected to the selling of a product (or the covers themselves) then it is probably ok.
I view "non-commercial use" as anything "non-business related" and not related to the generation of income either directly or indirectly. If you are going to be profiting from the use of the software, then it is only fair that the developers who wrote the software should be entitled to "a sale" also.
Note: This is my personal view/opinion on the matter.
The Software developers might have other ideas and might actually be more liberal with what they are happy for you to do (within the terms of the license).
If in doubt, you can always get in touch directly with the developers via their website/email. Pitch your story to them and see if they consider your planned use is commercial or private.
Rist
Member
So, I think I'm right.
I've e-mailed them. Just waiting for their reply!!
But, Bubby - not to challenge your authority - Wouldn't it be better if GAOTD would let the owners decide the license of their software?
I mean, I contacted an author once and he said I could use it for any purpose I want - Commercial and Non-Commercial. He said GAOTD has a general license which he couldn't do anything about.
I think that for simplicity sake - GOTD uses the 'safest' license that can still apply for all developers. If the license changed on a daily basis depending on the wishes of each developer and piece of software, nobody would know where they were at.
Having one license and sticking to the same thing every single day helps everyone know where they stand.
Personally - if I was making money from a giveaway, I think I'd feel obliged to at least share some of the profits (ie. purchase a license) with the developers as a thank you for providing me the tools I needed. But that's just me.
watcher13
Member
Only adding a post to this one because I've been thinking about this problem and this is an appropriate thread to express it. Of course, smarter people than I have thought about this, so I realize I'm just putting it down "for the record". I imagine it's been written in this forum before. I'm not necessarily saying that GOTD should make any changes.
The problem, however, is that the one size fits all license takes practically all the value out of a commercial giveaway. Obviously, that's because anyone who ethically sticks to the spirit of the license is only getting an unrestricted demo. That's sounds good, but is it really that much more valuable? A time restricted demo or a partially disabled demo is, in most cases, enough to decide whether you want to buy a particular software. So, the ethical user really gets little extra incentive to try this software versus any other commercial software of the same type, since they don't get a copy they can ethically use for free. At least not the way it was intended to be used. When GOTD offers either a home use software, a commercial use software that can be used for non-profit purposes, or a game; the user's gets one free copy they can ethically use in exchange for being a tester. the difference between the two situations is, obviously, why we get so much whining in the comments section when commercial use software is offered. Note, I'm not referring to Rist's legitimate question here when I say whiners.
Maybe GOTD should offer a different license in that situation but even that wouldn't work for a developer whose single copy can work on multiple machines - like a networking software. Of course, if anybody wants to suggest a better idea.... I think, though, we've should understand that all those whiners at least have a point in this situation, since it basically goes against the GOTD theory: a giveaway to users for the purposes of feedback and increased word of mouth.
Rist
Member
I'm all in for what watcher13 said. That's the exact way I wanted to put it but my english wasn't very good.
And BuBBy one more question. What would be the purpose of the software? (I'm contradicting my own statement, here). Almost, every product we create would be a commercial one in some way or the other, even if it is Free.
How do I create an ecover for non-commercial purposes?
watcher13
Member
Rist,
Your English isn't that good? You could have fooled me. I used to do a little newswriting, and have a degree in broadcasting. Which fits a big mouth like me. So you can't go by me. I used to get paid part time to find ways to "put it into words." So I'm a semi-pro.
What makes the license issue cloudy is that you could use Cover Commander and a lot of the other GOTD "commercial" softwares if you were developing freeware. For example, you could develop covers for multiple freewares. When you were ready to go commercial, you'd already have the covers and could stop using the GOTD software until you made your first profits. And then buy a license for the giveaway (or an updated version, of course).
I'm not sure I want GOTD to go to the trouble of changing anything. For one thing, and I think this is part of Bubby's point, it would complicate GOTD coming to agreements with developers to have more than one license. It's not that developers don't sacrifice a little either way, since we all know many who download aren't ethical about their use. I just wanted to formally make the point that there's good reason why people complain about the commercial license problem. I think most of the real veterans here (I'm not there, yet) already realize this, as does GOTD. It's just that we've seen some express their frustration about the complaints, when those complaints really are basically justified. The irony is that we can get frustrated and think of these people as trolls, when they're actually complaining because THEY want to use the software ethically.
Of course, I certainly wouldn't mind if someone here would suggest a workable solution, or if someone at GOTD would revisit this issue. Even though I personally don't have any commercial interests at this time.
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