[REBOL] Re: Licensing, components ... Re: REBOL FAQ updated
From: greggirwin:mindspring at: 13-Sep-2002 20:32
Hi Jason,
No brilliant ideas here. Sorry. :)
<< Since REBOL has built-in messaging I don't understand why that can't be
used as
part of a transparent licensing 'engine' attached to demo and other
versions. >>
Gotta be careful with that kind of thing, at least to me. If it looks or
smells like copy protection, people will zap it. You have to be really
vested in something to ante up if it says "I'm going to expire..." Also,
people are wary of anything that transmits info without their knowledge or
approval, even if the info is totally harmless. Then there's the issue of
all those license hits being handled by some process, which has to be 100%
reliable. Hmmm. I sound kind of pessimistic don't I? :\ Well, I'm not, and I
don't have any better ideas, but I'm all for something blindingly simple and
obvious.
<< I believe that if more people knew of real-world ENCAP uses, they would
be more
willing to trust and buy it without trial. >>
Agreed.
<< Other commercial software release partial demo versions with save
disabled or
similar strategies such as graphics apps which overwrite a demo text. I
imagine
that Encap is a little more complicated, and needs people to get hands-on
for a
while. >>
I think encap is really simple. Bind script to runtime; done. Reichart and
company could say for sure since they use it for FTPGadget.
<< Maybe I am going about this all wrong and should be directly contacting
RT and
negotiating for special consideration. You email sort of implies that is the
way
to go. Can anyone shed light on this? >>
For the general case, I think it would be good for them to clarify things as
much as possible for all of us, and put it on the web site as well. At least
a plain English summary of the intent of the various licensing options for
each product. I think contacting them doesn't hurt if you have a model in
mind and can show them enough "goods" to let them decide if it's worth the
effort to spend time on a custom arrangement.
<< I hate to be openly critical of RT marketing/licensing. I even get email
off-list from people who agree, but do not wish to say so publicly in this
forum. But REBOL is so interesting that it kills me not to see it grow. >>
I agree wholeheartedly. Open discourse is very important though. Since this
issue comes up periodlically, I'm sure they think about it long and hard.
Like they said once (paraphrased of course) "getting the legal parts right
is three times harder than getting the code right." and I can imagine that
it's true. Safer for them, maybe, to write a more restrictive general
license, that avoids loopholes, and tweak it as necessary.
I think they understand that everyone here wants REBOL to succeed wildly,
but sometimes our passions and frustrations get the best of us.
--Gregg
