On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 19:22:18 +0100, Wolfgang Lenerz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
I haven't answered on this thread until now mainly because (in the first
attempt...) I wasn't sure whether that kind of money would conceivably around
in this matter.
Now that Geoff has given more details, here's my 2 cents' worth.
I don't know whether offering something like 1000 pounds for software would
be a good idea.
The reason is that it is, in my mind, too much and too little.
Let me explain.
It is too little. If you want to finance a software author, 1000 pounds will
get you - what? A month' worth of work?
Look at what Peter has told us on this list - if he were offered 2000 pounds
for his ongoing work, he wouldn't accept it, because it would be far from
what the software would be worth...
This is a point of view I can share.
Regarding what Peter said (and to what Timothy and Bill added) I tend to believe that it is a reasonable idea to offer Tony a sum in the area of â1.000-2.000 (After all how many SMSQ/e's will be sold in the coming years?) with the provision that SMSQ/e could be placed under the GPL or some modified version of the GPL license (GPL would be ideal for reasons explained previously in length) as long as it is completely open and beyond any control. The modified GPL license would not prohibit payment of royalties when a dealer sells a copy of SMSQ/e (as it is now) as for Marcel and QPC, I believe they will still be covered under the previous pre-existent agreement (I believe Marcel has mentioned something like that or I could be wrong as usual ;-) .
In any case that would keep everybody happy and we could see QlwIP as part of the OS and even more developments further ahead.
In a solution like that, Tony retains his copyright, still gets royalties (plus he gets a lump sum in anticipation of future royalties that may -or may not- happen).
He has opened SMSQ/e (after a fashion) already anyway and from what I understand he even considered to open it completely (again I may be wrong), so what's the harm?
Phoebus (back from Florida... btw for anyone coming get a swimsuit ;-)
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