Problem with licensing

[bytecodegroup]

Hello, goodday, I really like this greenwork animation framework. I am new to the programming world and I want to start by making plugins for commercial purposes... I read about the licensing but I was confused.. I dont really understand "no free charge" and other standard licensing stuffs..

 

Sorry for my bad english.

 

Presently I am trying to develop a slider plugin for jquery and I will like to use your framework. This slider plugin I want to sell on envato market place. Am I free to use green sock as part of my plugin requirements for animation like Layerslider and revolution slider for free????

[Rodrigo]

Hi and welcome to the GreenSock forums.

 

First, thanks for your interest in buying a club membership, that's the best way to ensure the constant improvement of GSAP and user support as well.

 

You can use the free tools in any open source project you want as long as the source code is not altered and you honour the license agreement.

 

If you intend to sell your plugin(s) then you'll need a Business Green membership.

 

Take a look at this links in order to get a better idea:

 

http://greensock.com/club/

 

http://greensock.com/licensing/

 

If you need any further assistance don't hesitate to ask.

 

Happy Tweening!!

[Carl]

Yup, Rodrigo is exactly right. We try to keep the licensing terms as simple as possible.

Since you intend to sell your plugin that uses GSAP to multiple customers, a Business Green membership is required.

 

However, if you were to build a website that is free to access and your single client pays you $1,000,000,000.00, to build it that would not require any license and you can use our tools for free!

 

Its only when your product is resold to multiple people that the license applies.

[bytecodegroup]

Okay... I just dont have $150 dollars at the moment.. Thats sad.. And I really need this. How about Tweenlite only?? Does the licence covers that also?... If so, I can just try and use Tweenlite, so when I have the money I can get the full greensock

[Carl]

Hi Bytecodegroup,

 

The license is necessary any time you plan to re-sell products that use any of our products... even if it is just TweenLite. It is the primary funding mechanism for us. If you do not think your plugin will generate enough money to cover the cost of the license, you might want to consider if developing the plugin is worth the time investment. Most people agree that that the time they save alone by using our tools pays for the license within a few hours. 

 

Another option is that you could use all of our core tools for no charge whatsoever and give your plugin to people for free (just like we give you our tools for free). Perhaps this would be a risk-free way of testing the amount of demand for the types of plugins you wish to create and will further help you understand the value of our products as you use them.

 

Remember, the $150 Business Green package gives you the commercial license as well as all the premium tools (SplitText, ThrowPropsPlugin, Physics plugins, etc) which I'm absolutely positive will save you a lot of time and add value to your plugin. 

[bytecodegroup]

Thank you carl for shedding more light on this.

 

Definitely, I'm sure the plugin will make sales and will cover up 4 the cost of GSAP... I'm sure of that. I just dont have that amount of money now..

 

So, I think I better start saving because I definitely need GSAP. Thank you CARL. You guys should keep up the excellent work. Big Fan.. I will be back when I have the money. Thank You very much

[joe312213]

Hi there,

GSAP is incredible work, thank you so much for making it!

 

I have a query about licensing. There's no doubt about it being worth the license, but being in a similar boat to bytecodegroup, I wanted to know how licensing applies to a plugin that makes use of gsap framework, but does not include the gsap library in its distribution. I.e. it provides enhanced plugin functionality for anyone already using gsap. What kind of license if any is required for selling such a plugin? Does it make a difference if my plugin accepts different animation backends beside gsap, e.g. jquery animate?

 

Regards,

Joe

[Carl]

Hi Joe, 

 

Welcome to the GreenSock forums.

 

Thanks for your nice comments on GSAP and for your detailed question about licensing.

 

It’s not the distribution of GSAP that requires a license - it’s leveraging it in a tool that you’re selling to multiple end-users.

Since GSAP is being used for enhanced plugin functionality (and most likely better performance) a Business Green membership is necessary for this usage.

Making your customers take the extra step of going to GreenSock to download the library doesn’t really change the equation. 

 

The fact that user's can optionally select jQuery or another animation tool doesn't matter.

 

Hopefully, that clarifies things. We're happy to help further.

 

Thanks again for the questions.

 

Carl

[joe312213]

Thanks for the clarification Carl.

 

So I suppose if the code I write and sell is completely abstracted away from gsap, containing no references to, source from, or dependency on it (e.g. through Tweene proxy) - and then the code that independently links gsap as a backend to it is made freely available, then I wouldn't need a license?

 

Of course, I agree that anyone who is or will be deriving commercial benefit by selling a product that is going to do better as a result of gsap, aught to help support the further development of gsap, by buying a license. That's totally fair. My aim really is to minimize the risk before doing so. While I know $150 probably seems a trivial amount to most people who make any money from coding, and not even worth the time spent discussing it, that's not always the case.

 

Joe

[GreenSock]

Hey Joe. I figured I'd chime in here. Thanks for asking about this stuff and giving us a chance to clarify.

 

Using Tweene (or any library like that) doesn't grant permission to circumvent the GreenSock license. Their license must acknowledge GreenSock's. 

 

Are you saying that you plan to charge your customers a usage/license fee, but you'd like to find a way to [optionally] leverage GSAP without paying for it? I'm curious: if someone else uses your product but hides it behind enough layers of abstraction and/or makes it optional, would you waive your fee?

 

Ultimately we put a lot of trust in our user base. We don't police licenses and we've never sued anyone. That's not generally "how we roll". We just trust that if we put out a quality product and try to serve our customers well, they'll respond and support our efforts not only because they want to respect our work but also because it directly helps protect their investment; they want us to keep doing what we're doing so they can keep reaping the benefits. The licensing model provides that small funding mechanism that sustains things. Most people just take the tools and don't give anything back. That's fine with us for almost every type of use case. We just think it's reasonable to ask that when someone demonstrates a certain philosophy about their own code by charging multiple users for their product (which leverages our tools), they'd pitch in and support our efforts. Seems fair. It's easy to get caught up in technicalities, but I figured it'd help to explain the intent. 

 

Does that help clear things up? 

[joe312213]

Hi,
 

Thanks for further clarification. I do appreciate the intent behind the licensing and that was clear before, so perhaps it would have been better not to bring it up, as I'm sure dealing with these questions can get tedious and grating. 

 

My position is I've created some, what I think is fairly unique, web animation functionality that is useful for personal project work I'm doing, but which I think also has commercial potential, so I want to explore that (while also making it free for non-commercial use). But I want to avoid being in a situation where it doesn't succeed (maybe the functionality gets integrated into GSAP or another well known company duplicates it in their own product, or it's not as useful as I think it is. etc) and I'm $150 down, because for me, right now, that's a significant amount. If I do commercialize what I've made and it makes some money, then I would be delighted to support gsap (for the reasons your describe) - even if potentially on a legal technicality I didn't strictly need to. My intention is definitely not to make a wad of cash thanks in part to gsap and then not give anything back. I hope that much is clear now, and I'm sorry not to have elaborated my intention before. And I suppose if it did OK then I'd be in a similar position to you - in relying largely on trust for people using it commercially to pay the license. 

[GreenSock]

Very understandable, thanks for explaining candidly where you're coming from. It's tough to take a risk and pay the $150 when you're not sure if your product is going to be at all profitable. 

 

We want happy customers. If you're not satisfied after 2 months, you're totally welcome to request a refund (well, you don't have to wait that long of course - I'm just saying you could if you want to see if your product gets traction). Sound fair? Again, we'd like you to see GreenSock as a worthwhile investment and a partner in making your stuff awesome - not a risky gamble that you may regret. 

 

Oh, and feel free to wait until you're ready to launch your stuff before you purchase a membership. The commercial license is needed for the sale, not the development of your product.

 

I hope your endeavor ends up being super profitable and that we earn you as a member for life  

[joe312213]

Thanks Jack. I'll continue working on the code and then see what I want to do with it when it's ready for others to use.