This may not be in the spirit of free software either, but perhaps the
documentation you sell could be more than just a compilation of the html
pages into a pdf. For example, have the experts write some additional text
which doesn't go into CVS, with an eye perhaps towards a book.
Cheers
Jay Walters
-----Original Message-----
From: Ole Husgaard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 8:26 AM
To: JBoss-Dev
Subject: [jBoss-Dev] Documentation withdrawal
Hi,
Tobias Frech wrote:
> Hey guys!
> I am wandering on very thin ground at the moment. I hope and will try
> not to trip on any bad places. Lets see ...
>
> As I understand the situation is like follows:
>
> Now is the time were at least a little amount of money must come from
> all the effort put into the project. I think nobody here has money as
> her or his main reason to contribute, but some also need money to be
> able to continue.
I have no problem with that.
But if the business model breaks, no income
will be seen. Instead effort is wasted.
> The project must stay free, that is an requirement of the LGPL. That
> means that the sources must be available at all times. And they are !
Well, the JBoss program is LGPL.
But I do not know about the documentation
license. Last time I asked the board, the
documentation license had not yet been
determined.
Does anybody know what license the
documentation is under?
> For documentation everyone is free to download the manual sources and
> build the docu in whatever format they like.
>
> The revenue should come from a precompiled PDFed version of the docu.
> There is very small fee for the ready PDF version to avoid the hassle of
> downloading and compiling the docu themselves. I think that is fair. It
> guarantees LPGL and allows everybody to continue with putting work into
> the project.
Problem is, if the documentation license
is free, *nobody* can stop *anybody* from
compiling the documentation sources
themselves, and putting a PDF on the web
for free download.
But if the PDF can be downloaded for free,
who is going to pay for it?
Sorry, but either this business model is
broken, or the documentation license is
not free.
> The jumping point of this discussion and this thread is:
> Is the zipped HTML version a "threat" to the PDF version, meaning: would
> providing an archive with HTML lower the "sales" from the PDF version ?
I think so, but not much since web mirroring
is so easy.
Also, having the html pages online may lower
PDF sales.
> Opinions may differ here in how big the impact may be. But I think this
> is no real big issue and I did give up my point of view here and agreed
> with not to provide a zip of HTML.
I agree that it is no big issue if a html
documentation zip is available.
But it is the start of a trend that may be
dangerous to the JBoss project:
The next logical step would be to make it
possible to sell JBoss binaries (to avoid
the hassle of downloading sources and
compiling) by removing all JBoss binaries
from the website.
> I kindly ask you guys to consider doing the same. And if you want to do
> me a personal favor do not continue this email thread (If you absolutly
> can't hold back, I suggest starting a new thread named different).
Only problem: If just one person somewhere
does not agree and puts a PDF and html
zip online, the business model is broken.
And if we want JBoss to remain free, there
is *nothing* we can do about it.
> I hope I could clarify what happened and did not not say anything really
> bad. Let's see if the ground holds at the time I do my next steps ...
Thanks for letting us know.
I do not think that any income can be
generated from this, unless JBoss (or
parts of it) become non-free.
Yes, I think that this business model is
basically broken.
That was my negative contribution to this
discussion, but there is also a positive:
I think that it *is* possible to generate
income from JBoss, just not by taking away
freedom.
One way of doing this is by providing
commercial support, as discussed on the
jboss-user list about a month ago.
This could also be combined with sales of
packages: You take sources and binaries
for the latest and greatest stable and
development versions, and print it on a
CD. The available documentation is printed
on paper. And a slip giving access to
XX days of free commercial support is also
printed. It is all put in a nice box and
sold for US$XXX. (If somebody are going to
do this, please do not do the mistake of
producing a large number of packages in
advance. OSS projects develop fast, and
outdated packages are worth zip.)
Best Regards,
Ole Husgaard.
