in the recent thread where ismayil stated he is quitting the position of core developer of elgg, i suggested that maybe a good idea would be to look at the option of requiring commercial users of elgg to pay a license fee for use. as far as i am aware, steve is the only active core developer left and he asked me to create a new thread to discuss the idea.

to be clear, i prefer open source projects - including elgg - to be entirely free for all. the reason why i am suggesting to create a license fee requirement for purely commercial users is that it has been my experience and also the experience of other developers i know (including ismayil, from his comments) that generally, the primarily commercial users do not give anything (or at least very little) back to the community and so we have a situation that is something like:
 

1. coders create plugins and core code for free - for their own reasons, possibly to support their own website.
2. commercial developers use the code that was developed for free, gaining them the benefit of the others with nothing in return.
3. the commercial developers then use their resources to create their own proprietary code - giving them the benefit of both their own work and the work of everyone who shared... attempting to gain 'commercial advantage' - while ignoring that the basis of their 'advantage' could not exist without the community providing that basis for free.
4. the commercial developers get paid - sometimes very well - while the community developers do not.
5. there is an obvious imbalance that could be balanced by government or corporate entities that use elgg providing support in the form of money, coding time or other resources.
6. coders who work for free may (and often do) feel somewhat exploited by the situation, while the commercial users of the code often get rewarded greatly.

i don't know the names of many commercial sites that use elgg, because i don't track that topic much - but i do know of at least one now major site that used it and who claimed all along to be 'supporting' the open source community and elgg, yet in reality - as far as i know - did absolutely nothing to walk that talk.

why should this situation be allowed to continue? especially when it would be relatively simple to improve it and simply by putting out the intention to improve it there may be adequate impetus provided to inspire larger users to offer help which previously they didn't bother to do.

Steve implied in the other thread (i think) that commercial users would just fork elgg and avoid the license fee. That would be their choice and right to do so - but at least if they did that then there would be an end to the problems listed above. If they, or i, or anyone takes over our own version of elgg and no longer comes to the community or the core developers with support tasks/questions then they are entitled to do that and use their resources to make their own version of Elgg. I am suggesting though that the license make clear that after a specific date, they are not licensed to use any new code produced for Elgg by the core team unless they pay the license fee. I'm really not clear exactly how the elgg community would lose out by this because to my knowledge (and it appears to the knowledge of other coders i have spoken to) these commercial entities provide little to nothing here anyway, so what is lost?

how would this license idea 'save' elgg?
 

1. coders would know from their immediate use of the system that their work on the core is not going to be entirely counter productive to them, in that they may be giving code to groups who do not compensate them in any way and who may actually be direct competition for them online. at the very least they will know that elgg itself is being directly supported by their potential 'competition' and thus the effect is somewhat mitigated. this offers peace of mind and a sense of reciprocation that is missing currently and which is necessary in a group sharing environment.
2. by bringing in some money for the elgg core team, it becomes possible to bring balance to the team and provide motivation and increased quality of life to some extent.
3. a carefully worded clause in the agreement could provide a doorway for commercial users to bypass the fee if they instead provide coding / support time for the elgg core.. though i don't know how that would be worded from a lawful perspective or managed in practical terms. this would inspire more elgg core work from 3rd parties, rather than them just relying on the overworked core team.
4. the increased potential for financial support may draw new attention to elgg in general.

what are the mechanisms needed?

1. change in the agreement for elgg that stipulates that purely commercial use requires either a license fee or an agreement to provide a certain level of technical services for elgg core.
2. maybe some kind of serial number system built in to elgg to monitor license use, which gives some scope for commercial use to be monitored.
3. enforcement of the policy would require nothing more than standard operations of law for software license infringement.

this kind of approach is not my favored one at all - by nature i prefer to not involve 'legalities', 'money' or any of these topics into creativity - but i am also pragmatic and i feel there is a lot of potential being lost here and hard work going to waste to some extent.

any thoughts are welcomed.