I'd like to point out a few things on this matter.
First of all this community was and will always be about Open Source. I'm a big fan of this ideology which is why I got involved in YaBB and started BoardMod back in 2000. Since there seems to be a lot of confusion about Open Source actually means I'll give some pointers here.
Open Source does not mean “for free”, it's better described with “freedom”. The idea behind it is that you're granted the right to share it, to modify it, have a look inside and to get involved with it in any way you can imagine. But there is also a very important restriction: no one can take away these rights from you. You can modify it, copy it, but you have to give others the same rights on the new piece of software you just created! Note that there is no restriction that sais “hey, you have to give it away for free”. This might cause stomachache for some, but in the end this openness concerning commercial interests is not really problem!
A good example is the OpenOffice package. It's under an open source license too. This has resulted in a couple of enterprises trying to actually sell this software as their own. Nevertheless everyone is using the original package, there is no reason to buy what those enterprises offer, you have a choice here. It's the same with commercial mods. If a mod is only available for money, maybe someone felling not comfortable with it will write their own mod that does the exact same thing but for free. In that case it doesn't make sense to keep selling the original mod since no one will buy it. It's that simple. In my opinion the future of commercial mods lies within extended bugfixing support and additional services instead of the mod code itself.
So from a legal standpoint, it is possible to sell mods for money. BUT the person selling should be very careful what claims are made,
keep in mind that you've agreed to a license by downloading YaBB! That license tells you that you may charge people for your code, but it does not allow you to prevent people from sharing or modifying your just sold mod! You might hold the copyright on the code you created yourself, but you have to release it under the same license as YaBB itself, since it's a modification of the same. In case you don't do this, you don't have the right to use or modify the YaBB code which makes your whole action a license violation and thereby illegal.
The question under which license mods actually are released hasn't been discussed here in the past since there never has been a problem with it. We introduced a code of conduct here based on respect and acknowledgement: if you want to modify someone else mod, ask the original author first. That prevents the original author becoming upset and getting the felling of being pretermitted. But to point it out again: this is not strictly necessary from a legal point of view. Modification of YaBB are under the YaBB license too giving everyone the right to continue moding modifications. But I think it's important to keep this conduct alive, it has been very effective in preventing conflicts in the past.
At this point I'd like to cite the preamble of the YaBB license as most people here probably never read it (although they agreed to it
):
Quote:The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, this License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software – to make sure the software is free for all its users.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our YaBB Public License is designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for a service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they too receive or can get the source code, and you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
[…]
Summary of Your Rights with this Software
1. You MAY use this Package free of charge, and the Package, containing all source code, will be available to you at any time.
2. You may NOT sell this Package if nothing has been modified and it is being distributed by You in the same manner the original Package was distributed to You.
3. You MAY sell this Package if you have done the following:
- You have modified items or code in this Package and have properly commented what and when the modifications took place.
- If the Package has not been modified (or if it has), You are including a service such as installation with this Package.
- You have included a copy of this original YaBB Public License with your product and have applied the proper copyright notices.
- You have made available the source code and all other materials that were available when You received this Package to the public and have distributed this material to the original authors of this product.
4. You may NOT use the YaBB software for any illegal actions. Such use will void this license and deem your copy of YaBB illegal. YaBB nor XIMinc can be held liable for such uses.
The question now is: do we want to allow this platform to tolerate commercial mods?
Is there a realistic risk that more and more mods would only be available for money? It might as well just be a small niche, people with money would probably invest in a proper commercial board anyway? Is it worth opening a separate place for it? Or could that just weaken the YaBB modding community by dividing it? Keep in mind JetLi has released a lot of free mods in the past, I'm sure he'll do so in the future too...
I'd like to let you know about my personal opinion here too: I for my part don't have any interest in making commercial mods myself. I've always supported the idea of enjoying Open Source software as free as in the sense of “free beer” too. I don't demand that others think the same way though.
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Mods for Money (Read 60855 times)
