RE: Response: PHP website - OS Convention - ThoutReader - Screen shots

Dear Rasmus, Thank you for your response. The ThoutTReader is free. All available content (ie: documentation) that is currently available free will also be distributed free. The number one question asked of us is, "How do you make money to sustain the project?" Here is the answer taken directly from our soon to be released website at www.osoft.com/store Q: How do you generate money to sustain your program? A: First and foremost, our goal is to establish a "marketplace" where developers can congregate to contribute information as well as sell training content. Our success depends on the success of the community. We don't make money unless the community makes money. We think that is the way it should be. After all, developers/authors have to eat too! We provide the conduit for publishers, authors, and developers, through the ThoutTReader, to post their content on OSoft.com and generate royalties from units sold. Using a self-maintained database, OSoft website will allow users to directly contribute training content and contributions back to the community, thereby growing the community's wealth of resources exponentially. Our licensing is very generous. Any individual or organization may use the ThoutTReader for whatever reason they wish - absolutely free (without involving OSoft). If you generate your own content, by all means share it. Should they wish to use if for a COMMERCIAL purpose to PROFIT from it, they will probably want to get a license to allow them to remove the "Download" icon from the application (referred to as the "distribution link" in the license) or they can post it on our website. That icon takes the user to the OSoft website where developers have posted their work. We allow developers to set their own price, maintain all copyrights, publish elsewhere if they choose, and even contribute proceeds from their sales back to the open source foundation of their choice if they wish. If you feel that our license needs to be clarified, I welcome your suggestions. This is a work in progress. Mark ============================================ Mark D. Carey President OSoft, Inc. 2511 S. Hood Street Tacoma, WA 98402 253-284-0475 mcarey@osoft.com www.OSoft.com "Mind Altering Software" ============================================ -----Original Message----- From: Rasmus Lerdorf [mailto:rasmus@php.net] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 9:22 AM To: Mark D. Carey Cc: derick@php.net; gabor@hojtsy.hu; webmaster@php.net Subject: Re: Response: PHP website - OS Convention - ThoutReader - Screen shots On Wed, 14 Jul 2004, Mark D. Carey wrote: > Derick, I hope this gives you enough information to evaluate and approve our > proposal. One of the OSDN executives told me at a private meeting that the > biggest problem OSoft will have is "getting people to believe that the > ThoutTReader really does what it does." Well... it really does and we have > the industry commitments to prove it. This is our contribution to the OS > community and your support would be greatly appreciated. You are obviously hoping to use the PHP project as a launch pad for your product and you present this as a magnanimous contribution to the world. But is it? What does this clause in your license mean? # For use of the Covered Code to access any other content, without using and/or including the link to OSoft's content repository, a distribution license must be purchased from OSoft. Contact OSoft at licenses@osoft.com . Does this mean I can't generate my own content and use your reader to read that content without involving you? If so, why? -Rasmus ============================================ Mark D. Carey President OSoft, Inc. 2511 S. Hood Street Tacoma, WA 98402 253-284-0475 mcarey@osoft.com www.OSoft.com "Mind Altering Software" ============================================ -----Original Message----- From: Rasmus Lerdorf [mailto:rasmus@php.net] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 9:22 AM To: Mark D. Carey Cc: derick@php.net; gabor@hojtsy.hu; webmaster@php.net Subject: Re: Response: PHP website - OS Convention - ThoutReader - Screen shots On Wed, 14 Jul 2004, Mark D. Carey wrote: > Derick, I hope this gives you enough information to evaluate and approve our > proposal. One of the OSDN executives told me at a private meeting that the > biggest problem OSoft will have is "getting people to believe that the > ThoutTReader really does what it does." Well... it really does and we have > the industry commitments to prove it. This is our contribution to the OS > community and your support would be greatly appreciated. You are obviously hoping to use the PHP project as a launch pad for your product and you present this as a magnanimous contribution to the world. But is it? What does this clause in your license mean? # For use of the Covered Code to access any other content, without using and/or including the link to OSoft's content repository, a distribution license must be purchased from OSoft. Contact OSoft at licenses@osoft.com . Does this mean I can't generate my own content and use your reader to read that content without involving you? If so, why? -Rasmus