J. Landman Gay wrote:
> With the caution that apps made from open source libraries usually
> can't charge money. It depends on the license.
Given the range of licenses out there I suppose anything's possible, but
I've never seen an open source license that explicitly prohibits per-use
end-user cost.
The GNU Public License (GPL) governing LC Community Edition expresses no
opinion on costs at all.
Indeed, in the early days of the GPL none other than its inventor,
Richard Stallman, used to sell floppies containing his GPL-governed
utilities (though it was a modest fee, just enough to cover his material
costs and time).
The "free" described in the GPL and other open source licenses isn't
about money ("gratis") but freedom ("libre"). This ambiguity with "free"
is among the many limitations of our language, but few speak Latin so
the license was written in English, with descriptions of how "free"
applies. :)
But although there are no licensing constraints on fees one may charge
for the distribution of a finished software, those who receive the
software do have the right to expect access to the source code at no
additional cost.
And the GPL also grants them the freedom to modify the source code
however they like, and to distribute their modified version and its
source to whomever they like, at any price they like, which can (and use
does) include zero.
So while there's no copyright constraint on charging for open source
works, the restriction is simply pragmatic:
If you build a business model solely on per-user fees, and you choose a
license that allows the user to have access to the source and to
distribute modified versions of it, you will likely sell exactly one
copy, to a user who will exercise those freedoms.
The GPL is an excellent license when your goal is about sharing for
users, and proliferation of derivative works by other developers.
More permissive licenses like MIT may be useful for models benefiting
from open source process and proprietary consumer deployment.
Proprietary licenses may be needed for other business models.
And with LC, they offer three models:
- Community, governed by GPL, favoring sharing.
- Community Plus, a proprietary license for free-as-in-gratis
deployment to iOS and elsewhere.
- Indy and Business, for proprietary use also allowing per-use
fee-based distribution.
And as Jacque noted, some bundled components may have their own
licensing restrictions, where only some are dual-licensed and others
proprietary-only - see license and functionality breakdown here:
https://livecode.com/products/livecode-platform/pricing/
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
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