Dear Raphael,
thank you for the explanation. My point about opencart was
not the cost of the extension or their business model, but the
ease of finding the extension, together with the documentation
that exists for each extension (i.e. multiple screenshots,
simple explanation.) This is what comes when there is a chance
to make $25 a number of times over - so, yes, then it becomes
relevant to discuss the licensing model, as this evidently does
impact what is offered, at what price, and whether anyone ever
documents anything.
Just to summarise on opencart - many extensions cost very
little to develop - perhaps only an hour or two of coding. But
if it saves me an hour or more of my time then I am happy to
spend $25 - or even $50 for that matter - and evidently, for
some of the most popular extensions, many hundreds of people
agree with me.
The question of whether the choice of AGPL license should
prevent this kind of micro-customisation is an open one.
Say I create a new feature for the webstore, say even - the
shipment tracking feature I described - whereby I can store
parameter trackno, together with a courier choice, such that the
URL
www.courier.com/tracking.asp?id=%s
where %s is trackno, so that I can simply link through to a
courier's website to see how far my parcel has got yet, and even
if the customer has received it - this is not a USD5000
development - but I bet others would be prepared to pay $50 for
this simple and useful functionality. Why then can I not publish
the code on the launchpad, thereby keeping the AGPL purists
happy, but ALSO offer a service to install it on customer's
servers for $50 ? Just because the code is published freely and
for nothing, it does not seem to logically exclude the
possibility of also charging a fee to help those people who
don't want to have to spend days trying to find the exact piece
of code on the launchpad that they should be using.
The reason it is relevant right now - is because there are
large numbers of small changes and customisations that webstore
designers want to have, and would be prepared to pay for, but
which may never get developed because you are suggesting that
the AGPL does not allow it. I think a clarification of this
point would be really helpful for me, and perhaps for anyone
else new to this particular form of license.
Thanks
Kurt
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