VoiceChatter commercial license - Suggestions wanted

[ChrisW]

I'm finally in the process of making VoiceChatter available for commercial use. I've completed a first draft of the commercial license, and I could use some suggestions to make it better.

In brief, it says that if you are a hosting company, there will be a licensing fee of $15/month per physical server running VC servers. Any other for-profit use will need to be arranged with my (yet to be formed) company. All other possibilities are covered under GPLv3. This only applies to the server software, and the client is also licensed under GPLv3.

Please post here if you have any comments, suggestions, or complaints, particularly about the pricing.

Here is the current draft:

VoiceChatter Server License Agreement
Last Updated: March 26th, 2009


Summary

THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT between “you”, the end user of the VoiceChatter server software, and XXX Company, an Alexandria, VA, USA based company.

In this Agreement, any use of the capitalized term “Software” means the VoiceChatter server software, including all versions for all platforms and any and all updates, upgrades and enhancements that are officially provided by XXX Company.

Use of this software indicates your acceptance of these terms.


Ownership

The Software, any official accompanying documentation, and source code are owned by XXX Company. This Agreement grants permission to use the Software, but ownership remains with XXX Company.


License Types

There are two different categories of uses of the Software, each with its own terms and conditions. Any usage of the Software not covered requires a separate Agreement with XXX Company.

1) Non-profit
Any use of the Software that is non-profit in nature falls under this category. No payment or trade may be required for setup or use of a VoiceChatter server is allowed. Note that this also includes the use of the Software in a commercial setting, but not for the purpose of renting servers to external parties or any other use specified in other license types. In this case, the GPL version 3 license applies to the use, distribution, and modification of the Software. The following, non-obvious cases are included under the “non-profit” terms:

a) A company that uses the Software for teleconferencing in order to reduce costs due to telephone charges.
b) A company that uses the Software for internal communication, regardless of whether or not the company also does commercial hosting. However, any use of the Software for commercial hosting purposes is still subject to the commercial hosting license and relevant fees.
c) An entity (individual, group of individuals, or company) hosts a server for another entity, but no requirement of fees or advertisement is required in exchange for the hosting. Donations or advertisements for the hoster are permitted, as long as they are not required for continued hosting service.

2) Commercial Hosting
Commercial hosting means that a fee, advertisement, or requirement for a bundled paid service is required for setup, use, or access to a VoiceChatter server or channel. This includes but is not limited to the following examples:

a) Direct fees: If you charge a recurring rental or usage fee for the setup, use, or access to a VoiceChatter server OR channel.
b) Indirect fees: If you require an external person or group to advertise in exchange for the setup, use, or access to a VoiceChatter server OR channel.
c) Bundling: If you are including or bundling the setup, use, or access to a VoiceChatter server OR channel with another paid service REGARDLESS of whether or not you are charging for the VoiceChatter server OR channel specifically.


Pricing

For the purposes of commercial hosting, pricing is based on the number of physical machines that are running at least one instance of the Software. Any and all virtual machines running on the same physical hardware is considered to be one physical machine. There is no fee based on slot counts.

The price per physical machine is $15 per month. Payments are due on the 1st of each month and will cover fees for the same month. Any partial months will be prorated and included in the next billing cycle. If a payment is not received within 30 days of being due, the license may be revoked, at which time the licensor gives up the right to commercially host VoiceChatter servers.


Redistribution and Modification

Redistribution and modification of the Software is permitted as long as this Agreement, copyright information, and notification of modification are included in the redistribution.


Change of Terms

This Agreement may need to be revised. As such, the terms and conditions of this Agreement may change at any time. Any changes will be made publicly available on the VoiceChatter website. By accepting this Agreement, you also accept that it may change at any time.


Disclaimer of Warranty

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.


Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

[Salvation]

So if i understand this license right. If someone like a Clan/Community offer Voice-Chatter server. To members and so on, it's free?. As long they don't charge them anything?

/Matte

[ChrisW]

That's correct - as long as they don't charge anything or require advertisements.

I basically only want to require a license for companies that are in the business of renting servers. Pretty much everything else I consider fair use.

[cronqvist]

Where do all the money go?:)

[ChrisW]

It goes towards all of the expenses of development and to me (and possibly people that help) for reward for a job well done! For example, I'll need to rent a development server, buy a mac so I can actually do the mac port, and buy a newer version of visual studio (mine is from 2002).

I was thinking of setting up a "bounty" system so that people can implement things that I don't have time or the experience for so that they are rewarded for contributing to a commercial product. A web interface might just be something along those lines

[chronokun]

the GPLv3 licence permits commercial use of software(hence why its free(as in speech) software) and altering it so that it doesn't is a violation of the terms of using the GPL licence correct? so in other words... why would anyone pay for the server unless they wished to sell a product based on its source code without distributing the changes under the GPL?

[ChrisW]

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say.

When using the server, you can choose between one of two licenses - GPLv3 or the commercial license. Are you suggesting that I should add a clause to the commercial license for requiring any changes be distributed freely?

[chronokun]

I was wondering, is the purpose of the commercial licence for people who wish to distribute software derived from the original source code under terms other than the GPLv3? if so nevermind, or do you intend people to not be able to use the GPL version to operate servers running your software and rent thier use(similar to how teamspeak is licenced)? because if this is the case then you should be aware that the GPL already permits them to do this so there is no reason for them to pay for the commercial licence.

To be clear, there is no clause in the GPLv3 disallowing commercial use.

[ChrisW]

All I really want to do is to get a cut of the profits made by the companies that use my work for profit. If there's a better way of doing it than having a dual license, I'm definitely open to suggestions. If there's a way to only have one license and still cover all of the bases, I'm all for it.

I'm far from an expert on all of this, so I'm open to any advice or suggestions that you may have.

[chronokun]

Right well I think what you need to do is swap the GPL for another licence perhaps something like 'Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 ' and then have a commercial licence along side that although I'm not sure exactly which licence would be best to use instead of GPL I don't think CC says anything about source code so perhaps it wouldn't be the best choice I don't really know if that matters or not?

Your idea to dual licence it is quite sensible i just don't think it will work with the GPL licence because I think you need a licence which excludes commercial use to use along side your commercial licence.

[thantik]

Yeah, I dislike the GPL for that reason alone. Since your source code is available, anyone can freely take out anything from the server portion and use the servers however they see fit. The GPL was designed to make the CODE free, which means you can't really place the restrictions your trying to restrict on it. The GPL requires that you re-release the changed code back into the wild IF and only if you distribute it. If your just keeping it in-house and using it to provide a service, they don't have to contribute jack-squat. I would be afraid of them taking it, ripping out any kind of 'licensing code' you had embedded, and doing what they wanted...and since technically they can do anything they want with the code, you have no recourse

It seems like the client-side should be GPL, to allow for flourishing of the apps, etc and the server-side might require you to invent a license that allows the server-side source to be open, but still retain the ability to have a license fee/monthly fee per-process.

IANAL of course, but honestly - you might want to take some donations and hire some legal council to write up such a document and suggest ways to solve your particular issue. Also, I see the licenses that your using are mostly freely-usable, but the eSpeak is GPLv3 which can be poisonous, however since it (as far as I know) is only used in your client application, it shouldn't be an issue.

[SAVAGE]

first off i hope i am in the right fourm to be asking this question
free Voice Chatter server"
Question:
So If I Understand Correctly,
If I Want To Host A Voice Chatter Server From My Home Pc For Myself and My Buddies ( clan ) That I Game With
I Do Not Need A commercial license ?
I Do Not Need Any license !
What Is The Limitations ( how many clients can connect to the free Voice Chatter server that I host from My Home pc ) ?
will there be a npo ( non profit organization ) license in the works ?
If I post a link to my clan website in the welcome message will that void the free licenseing ?

P.S

I am currently hosting a server for use & testing

all are welcome

server name: [SOB]
IP: 173.26.204.85
Port: 7878
password: sobclan

[ChrisW]

This is actually an old forum that's not used anymore. The real forum is here:

http://voicechatter.net/forum/index.php

This should probably be deleted...

However, to answer your question, no, you do not need a commercial license for your purposes. You do not need a commercial license unless you are using VC servers for financial gain by selling/renting servers to third parties. The same applies to NPOs, but I'm willing to work with NPOs if there's some reason that they require a commercial license but cannot afford it.