>Alain : No one has commented yet on my suggestion to
>reserve the right of OC distribution/resale for us, so
>that we can auto-finance our activities. Comments?
Alain : The situation I spoke of (above) has since been rectified. Most
members have responded to it.
Michael Fair : I think we would make more money if we got everybody and
their grandmother distributing OT (CD or otherwise).
Alain : Less profit in the short-term but more profit in the long-term.
It's not altruism, but rather "deferred gratification with a greater
gain in mind", eh! That's more than OK in my book.
Michael Fair : The logic goes like this: If we reserve distribution
rights to ourselves, we limit our ability to generate customers and are
then charged with the responsibility to police and enforce that.
Alain : Less customers and high maintenance. You're right. That would
be awful.
Michael Fair : OTH, we give away distribution rights,
Alain : Does indeed seem to be the prevalent opinion at this time.
Michael Fair : ...and make it spread like a virus,...
Alain : I am still not sure about this one.
Michael Fair : ...embed the interpreter in every application that has a
scripting language, and make it so easy to add an OT interpreter to
your application that OT is all of a sudden the scripting language of
choice,...
Alain : That would be nice!
Michael Fair : we, being the OT gurus are now a critical resource to
those people. Sure they could hire someone else, or learn to do it
themselves, but it's easier to hire us.
Alain : You have a point there. This idea has potential. First of all,
we make sure that everyone gets the credit that they're due (of
course), whether their contribution is programming, graphics, etc.
Their motives could be altruistic :) but they could also make
contributions so that their expertise is recognized, so that eventually
they could be hired for that expertise. We will no doubt do this
informally (as I have already) but we could also network ourselves for
the purpose of obtaining contracts or some needed workers, more
formally. Perhaps a database of CVs, like many other sites have done,
but I would prefer a database of individual skills. I recommend the
philosophical book entitled "Les arbres de la connaissance" to fully
understand what I mean and the potential of this idea.
Anthony : And with the complexity of learning certain parts of OpenCard
(example: the interpreter source is scary), it'd be cheaper to hire
us, too.
Alain : No doubt about that.
Michael Fair : I am specifically thinking of the Multimedia development
business. Most of them have very few programmers, ...
Alain : You're absolutely right. icheal. I am a recent graduate in
Interactive Multimedia. All of my MM colleagues hate programming.
Scripting is detested too. Even HTML markup is disdained.
Michael Fair : ...and not many know C++, so if they need a specialized
plugin, they are going to turn to ...
Alain : They are going to turn to someone, that's for sure, because
coding in any of its forms is shunned for the most part, and I don't no
anyone that is in MM and is also a C++ programmer. It's like oil and
water!
Michael Fair : ... us first. Why? Because they think we know what we
are doing (and for the most part we do).
Alain : I am not sure that we will necessarily be their first stop.
Their perception of our competence and reliability will depend on many
factors. But your confidence that we know what we are doing is
nonetheless laudable.
Michael Fair : We get a great reputation for providing them with a tool
that makes their business the best in the business, and they hire us to
make sure they can deliver their products on time and can call us if
they have an emergency. People who aren't computer fluent (and even
some who are) will pay money to have a phone number or email address
they can call when things don't go well. They don't understand OT the
way we will, and they would rather keep it that way if they can.
Alain : I had forgot to consider this high-maintenance aspect of
reselling/supporting CD versions of OC. It would be a major headache,
and an outfit like RedHat would do a much better job than we would.
Besides, it would sidetrack our research and development efforts.
Michael Fair : I say we give OT away completely free, encourage people
distribute it however they want, make sure the code for the interpreter
is Open Source to protect our investment, ...
Alain : Free non-exclusive distribution of OC would be my vote now. You
have all persuaded me.
Michael Fair : I like the LGPL and do not consider standalones "derived
works" which means standalones can be released.
Alain : LGPL has recently been criticized because apparently it would
constrain standalones to the same licence as OC ... that it spread like
a virus to all derived works.
Anthony : Whether you consider them derived works does not matter. It's
a matter of law, and they are. If you combine a stack and OpenCard the
resulting program is a derived work of both OpenCard and the program.
And if we try to say that "standalones are not covered" we run into the
problems, similar to what I responded to Alain with.
Alain : Which is why you are not in favour of LGPL, and would prefer
that we use Perl Artistic instead, right Anthony?
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