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Many people have claimed that all that current 3PD's have to do to continue business as usual is relicense their work under GPL. The implication has been that you can use the same business model (selling the components themselves) only under GPL instead.

Is anyone else, inside or outside of Joomla!, already doing this? That is, making a living selling their GPL licensed software. Not a "support", "upgrade", or "documentation" model, but by actually selling copies just as someone would sell proprietary licenses. Same business model, GPL license: that's what I'd like to see examples of.

It could be that there are many people doing this and we need to highlight them. It could also be that nobody is doing it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wouldn't work. We could start with 3PD's who have already decided to re-license their components.

In any event, let's start a list.

EDIT: To clarify, this thread is to list software that's available under the "pay for a copy" business model and a GPL license. An extensive discussion about different business models is going on here: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg868992

EDIT 2: A "pay for a copy" business model + GPL license does not mean that documentation, support, and upgrades are unavailable. However, it does not rely on those three things as a source of revenue.

I am not trying to be devil's advocate, but shouldn't developers be offering support, upgrades and documentation already?  Do they not?  Most of the reputable 3PDs that I know of offer all of these things and work this model already. 

Surely there shouldn't be developers out there that simply think that they can put your extension out there and sell it successfully with out service, support, documentation, upgrades etc?

Service and support are a part of every single business model. I don't know of any business that doesn't have to include to some degree.

Perhaps to start a list you have to qualify exactly what you are looking for.  I don't think you will find any that don't offer service, support and documentation with their extensions, and if you do they should be avoided at all cost.

How about software that just works? I have a commercial copy of NetNewsWire on my computer at home that I've never had to call in for support, never had to upgrade, and is straightforward enough that it doesn't need documentation. And it does exactly what I want. But this thread is not about business models; we already have several on those.



Someone who uses sales of GPL'ed software they wrote as their sole source of revenue.

The thing is that your experience with that specific software is not the norm.  That is why there are huge datacenters located around the world to handle support and service requests for software.  My point is what you are asking for would be hard to find in the proprietary software world.  I know of very few companies that just put their software out without any support at all.  In fact my previous comment stands that I would never recommend anyone to purchase software from a vendor that does not offer support for their product.


I doubt you could name 5 software companies that are proprietary that don't offer service and support for their products.

Edit:  You mention business models and the request for your specific business model in your first post.  That is why I was speaking of business models.  If you don't want to discuss business models what is the point of this discussion?

Most of them charge for a license and give the support and documentation for free, factoring it in as a business cost. Of the ones that don't give documentation and support for free, it's usually still not the primary revenue center. I'm not talking about people who don't document or support their software, I'm talking about people who make their money selling the software itself. Is there anyone who uses sales of GPL'ed software they wrote as their sole source of revenue?

Sorry if I going a little OT. We have to remember that we have a huge userbase in this community. Even if the extension runs without problem, not everyone that need support - I think the market still is so big (and get bigger for each day) that you always find people that want to buy the original, be able to communicate with the developer, propose new functions, ask about specific customer solutions, receive upgrade in maybe it's one of their critical extensions.

What is better, to be able to sell proprietary extensions in proprietary cms with a limited userbase or be able to sell gpl extensions with an userbase of several millions of websites? I think one solution would be kind of extension community clubs with recurring member fees, something like the template clubs.

Actually where that might have been true 10 years ago, the trend has changed to being that most offer support and service for free for a limited time, you then have to either pay for a support type contract for a specific period of time, or you pay for support on an as needed basis per incident.  Most big companies have realized that people want support and they are willing to pay very well for it. (and that isn't just in the software world, but most businesses - example: service contracts, extended warranties.)

All of these good points about the merits of business models aside, I'm still interested in knowing if there's anyone out there earning revenue by selling their own GPL software. People in the forums have mentioned that commercial developers who release under the "pay for a copy" business model (which is the one used by the majority of the available commercial components) need only change their license to GPL and everything will be fine.

So, is there anyone within or outside of Joomla! that currently uses the "pay for a copy" model with a GPL license? Ryan Ozimek indicated that he may soon be releasing software this way, is there any one else?

I think for that you would need to look at retailers. They are the only people who sell a box with software inside but don't do anything else.
I believe you could look at Fantastico as a company that makes its money by selling gpl software.

Selling your own product without support, documentation or warantee, i really doubt it. I don't care what license you are issuing it under.

The support might be a forum, the documentation might be a readme, but the idea that there is nothing just perfect software, well, I know you are satisfied with the product you mentioned, but they too probaby have the planned obsolescence of issuing new releases so that their existing customers come back again.

Why are you all trying to talk this simple question to death instead of letting the developers answer?
Joe never said "looking for a dev who sells and offers no support and no docs", I believe we all understand these would come with the extension anyway. Please read his post again.
So now let the devs answer -if there are any living on sales of GPL extensions at all..

Hey there Joe!

You wrote:


...and later gave me a little shout out...



I should note that PICnet will be providing GPL'd software using the "pay for a copy" model, but that's just one piece of the services we'll be providing around that model.  Additionally, I should note for clarity that this isn't our "sole source of revenue."

Looking forward to sharing this with the community!

Best,
Ryan

ditto, ok, so we have 1....

Look here: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/board,48.0.html
You will find 3 new sub forums. These will allow you to post and receive replies where possible without fear of off-topic or personal attacks (we hope).

You have 3 choices:

    * GPL Questions - User Related
    * GPL Questions - Developer Related
    * GPL - Your Opinion

Discussions regarding GPL related topics have moved to the above forums.

Thank you for understanding.  This thread will be closed.