Web design & FOSS
Front-end web technologies and Free Open Source Software.
Friday 16 October 2009, 3:54 PM
Free, you say?
I'm confused aobut a trend in the Free Software world: subscription fees as a way of raising money for software. Specifically I've seen this with the Joomla Content Editor and JXtended Joomla! modules.
I know that there's nothing to stop people charging for Free Software. It says as much in the Selling Free Software article on the GNU web site: “Actually we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can.”.
Apparently there is no requirements about how much can be charged for Free Software, except “The one exception is in the case where binaries are distributed without the corresponding complete source code.”.
I used to think that the source code had to be made available even if the binaries weren't. But now I think this means that you can charge what you like but the source code can then be published by the purchaser.
In which case, could I publish the above Joomla Content Editor and JXtended extensions with no fear of legal retribution?
Yours, confused of Kent
PreviousComments on this post
Correct, the GNU GPL is "Free as in Freedom." That is you are free to run, read, improve, and share the code. So yes, you can share the code if you wish, as long as you follow the rules, for example distributing under the GNU GPL, not removing copyright information, indicating if you have changed files, and so on and of course not violating their trademarks or any other relevant considerations. Whether you should is really up to you to decide. is it to your benefit to help drive those companies out of business and those developers out of the Joomla! project?
The GNU GPL does not mean that developers cannot earn a living doing development. Firms like JXtended and JCE have made important contributions to the development of Joomla. Several thousand independent firms and individuals distribute extensions for Joomla, and every one of those developers needs to pay his or her rent and for bandwidth. What they do makes Joomla more powerful. Other projects have ecosystems that are more focused on custom development, which is also a powerful model but one which I suspect costs site owners considerably more than the cost of a few Joomla extensions.
Correct, the GNU GPL is "Free as in Freedom." That is you are free to run, read, improve, and share the code. So yes, you can share the code if you wish, as long as you follow the rules, for example distributing under the GNU GPL, not removing copyright information, indicating if you have changed files, and so on and of course not violating their trademarks or any other relevant considerations. Whether you should is really up to you to decide. is it to your benefit to help drive those companies out of business and those developers out of the Joomla! project?
The GNU GPL does not mean that developers cannot earn a living doing development. Firms like JXtended and JCE have made important contributions to the development of Joomla. Several thousand independent firms and individuals distribute extensions for Joomla, and every one of those developers needs to pay his or her rent and for bandwidth. What they do makes Joomla more powerful. Other projects have ecosystems that are more focused on custom development, which is also a powerful model but one which I suspect costs site owners considerably more than the cost of a few Joomla extensions.
Elin,
Thank you for shedding light on the issue
> Whether you should is really up to you to decide.
I guess this is the crux of the matter -- I am free to but do I want to? Giving people the option gives them the responsibility, and you've made that point well. I actually have no problem in paying for good and useful Free Software, and I have noticed how well developed, polished and supported JCE and JXtended are (and I have paid for them). It was more the _principle_ of the matter.
