[sldev] [POLICY] ESC exempt from open source and GPL licensing?

[Taran Rampersad]

Rob Lanphier wrote:
> On 11/10/07 6:36 PM, Taran Rampersad wrote:
>   
>> Then please respond to my query on how much commercial licensing costs. 
>>     
>
> The answer is "it depends".  We haven't done enough commercial licensing
> deals to lock down on a price.  Over time, I imagine we will, but we're
> not there yet.
>
> Rob
>   
Thank you for your response, Rob. Given that ESC bought a license, there
should at least be a ballpark figure. I am actually considering the
license for a potential client who wishes to dual license the browser
created. Sort of like Linden Lab is doing. Recursion requires a good
idea of the first iteration, though.

What I am getting, though, is that there isn't a price - that ESC
managed to get a commercial license somehow - and that I can freely use
the GPL'd code to continue making GPL stuff as per the GPL. Love the
recursion. However, any work I do will not be resold by Linden Lab once
I do not release rights to Linden Lab to do so. This precludes me from
working on JIRA related patches and contributing to the Linden Lab code
base, I suspect. If I were to contribute patches without assigning
rights, Linden Lab would not be able to resell the same patches under a
commercial license.

I'm not stating that I am a one person code guru who will clear JIRA
with a clap of his hands. Far from it. But I like to know what I'm
getting into and what the the long term consequences for myself, and by
proxy a client, when I do bring something to the table. This sort of
information might be really handy to have available to people. We're not
all sheep, you see.

I'm flying to Florida to meet with the prospective client at an unholy
hour on Wednesday morning. If I have the logic to all of this wrong,
please correct me. Licensing and other information tend to be important
in projects, at least in my experience. I apologize if my experience
varies from the experience of others, but I only have mine to work with.

-- 
Taran Rampersad

http://www.knowprose.com
http://www.your2ndplace.com

'Making Your Mark in Second Life: Business, Land, and Money'
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