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All commercial extensions & templates available for Joomla are now open source?

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  • Re: All commercial extensions & templates available for Joomla are now open source?

    Posted 17 years 10 months ago
    • I don't see how a bridge can work... The bridge would have to be GPL, right? So anything that touches the bridge also becomes GPL, just like the bridge became GPL by touching Joomla.
    #73329

  • Re: All commercial extensions & templates available for Joomla are now open source?

    Posted 17 years 10 months ago
    • The bridge can be LGPL jsut fine.

      Gollum: you don't have to modify the code in order to resell it.

      I could, right now, download every GPL extension on the JED change their name (just to fool people, but not needed) and start selling them. Without any modifications.

      No less a risk than a template club.

      imo camelgrass has a point.

      I would like to see any of the core devs with a successful GPL business as an example to all of us.

      Rocketworks will be a start. BUT it is riding on RT's fame which gives it an advantage, and a steady income supply that is from a non GPL source.

      Everyone talks constantly about how GPL businesses can work, but no one can provide a good example....

      (That said I am going to give it a try and see if I can prove myself wrong)
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    #73332
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    Re: All commercial extensions & templates available for Joomla are now open source?

    Posted 17 years 10 months ago
    • OK I think I wrote that wrong.

      My opinion is... there may or may not be a viable business model around GPL extensions, but with templates there is simply no doubt ...it is just not possible. You simply cannot run a successful business selling GPL templates.

      Again, let's say RT released all templates GNU/GPL. On the 1st of every month, a template is released, lets call it rt_elemental.

      A competing template club opens run by four people and called Pockettheme. On the 5th of every month, they release four templates, pt_elementos, pt_alamos, pt_rocketrip, and pt_screwrt. Basically each of the four owners has taken rt_elemental and heavily modified it, then given it a new name. Credit is still given to RT in the code, so no laws have been broken.

      Rockettheme releases one template a month, while Pockettheme releases four. Rockettheme costs $60/yr, Pockettheme costs $30/yr or less. Rockettheme no longer has separate developer membership so has lost that income stream.

      Pockettheme developers live in a third world country, so they could just as easily provide all their themes free and live off adsense and affiliate ads.

      You get the picture... do you still see a way?

      Here's hoping Daniel gets proved wrong about commercial GPL extensions. I for one, can't wait to see ninjoomla 2.0 in the next month or two.
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    #73348

  • Re: All commercial extensions & templates available for Joomla are now open source?

    Posted 17 years 10 months ago
    • The same thing could happen to a GPL extension shop.

      ijoomlagpl.com releases magazine v1.2 for $60

      ijoomlagplripoff.com releases the exact same magazine with a couple of extra color schemes for $50

      The way to make money in a GPL environment though -in theory- though it has yet to be proven with any regularity, is to provide so much non distributable value other than your actual products, that people want to be a part of it.

      Such as forums, documentation, training vids etc.

      Or to make your living off custom dev and servicing, which is actually anti good products. The better your product, the less people need your help = less income. You get rewarded for producing buggy code and having people pay you to fix it.

      Another option would be to release a product for free that was '80%' complete. Didn't have the most important features. Then you charge people for custom work to install that remaining 80%. Because it isn't technically distributed, it doesn't have to be GPL.

      I love open source, but GPL is a poor license imo. It rewards and encourages the wrong sort of behavior in regards to open source. It relies far to much on trusting your customer to pay when they don't have to, which has been proven over an over again to not be a valid business model. :P

      I am aiming for the 'extra value' model as I don't want to spend my days doing the same installations/repairs over an over.
    • Last Edit: 17 years 10 months ago by Daniel Chapman.
    • www.ninjoomla.com - The Ninjoomla Open Source Extension Club
      Over 50 open source extensions and 100 videos to you build the site you want.
    #73354

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