LiveCode Commercial License

[JB]

Thanks Richard,

So the logical economical way to go is use
the free version until you are ready to put
your program on the market unless you do
have enough money to invest in a license
which ends up helping everyone.

Out of curiosity here is a case that I do not
think would involve me because if I have the
money I will go for a better license.  But here
is a question about the indy license for $299.
You can have sales up to 500k.  They do not
have much sales the first year and cancel the
license.  The next year sales are $2 million.  Is
there license to market the program still good?
Certainly if they make that much it would seem
idiotic to not support the software that made
them money but you know people do some
strange things.

John Balgenorth


On Sep 18, 2014, at 8:22 AM, Richard Gaskin <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:

> JB wrote:
> 
>> Thank you for the information.  That sounds perfectly reasonable
>> to me and isn’t really much different that the Rev license.  If
>> you did not renew your license you did not get the new versions.
>> The only difference is now you also are not allowed to continue
>> writing with the version you licensed after it expires.
> 
> You can use the Community Edition for developing, obtaining a Commercial License only when you need to deploy a proprietary work.
> 
> The GPL that governs it is a distribution license, so it only applies when distributing your app - that is, it's only when you distribute your app to others that its source must be made available.
> 
> So hobbyists making tools for themselves, or corporations making apps for internal use, most uses of LiveCode Server, and many other scenarios are a good fit for the Community Edition. Right now more than 3/4 of LiveCode users are using the Community Edition.
> 
> The first item in this FAQ outlines various scenarios which apply to each license:
> <http://livecode.com/support/ask-a-question/>
> 
> While RunRev's joining the trend toward subscription licensing may seem off-putting at first, if you think about it and look at the pricing you'll find that most of us are paying less than before.
> 
> The older Enterprise license was $500, while the new Indy Commercial license is just $299:
> <http://livecode.com/livecode-licenses/>
> 
> Given the lower pricing, and most of us having renewed annually anyway to keep current with the engine, and the free availability of the Community Edition to develop with between deployments, the only folks adversely affected by the switch to subscription-based licensing is the relatively small subset who didn't renew annually but need to deploy proprietary apps frequently.
> 
> Such cases suggest an opportunity for considering open source:  If you have an app that is currently proprietary but not doing well enough in the market to cover even a $299 annual license, where's the ROI in keeping it proprietary?  The cost of maintaining your own licensing system, adding security to your app to enforce it, and handling support
> obligations is probably far greater, further lowering your business' return.
> 
> If the GPL seems a good fit, it's more than just giving software away. The GPL is about receiving contributions from the community in terms of enhanced features and support.
> 
> The GPL is not the perfect solution for all needs. No single license is.  But it can be a very good fit where proliferation of the software is a goal.
> 
> And when an app is inviable as a proprietary work the fit gets even better: open source offers a way for the software to realize greater value in other ways beyond per-user license fees, allowing an app to reach a much larger audience and potentially garnering a community far greater than a company could afford to have on salary.
> 
> Open source is definitely a different way of thinking about software but worth considering for many reasons, and even more so when an app is held back by a lack of licensing revenue anyway.
> 
> 
> As a side note:
> 
> While this article is about software used internally in an organization rather than distributed commercial apps, given that an estimated 95% of code is for internal use it may be of interest to some here with the cogent case it makes for using open source process for such things:
> 
> Why Your Company Needs To Write More Open Source Software
> <http://readwrite.com/2014/08/15/open-source-software-business-zulily-erp-wall-street-journal>
> 
> 
> -- 
> Richard Gaskin
> Fourth World Systems
> LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
> Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
> Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FourthWorldSys
> 
> _______________________________________________
> use-livecode mailing list
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode