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License question for upcoming project

jonnyH test
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Warning: Please note

This thread was started before GSAP 3 was released. Some information, especially the syntax, may be out of date for GSAP 3. Please see the GSAP 3 migration guide and release notes for more information about how to update the code to GSAP 3's syntax. 

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Hello GreenSock Forums,

 

I’m a GSAP developer, long time lurker, and first time poster who just got offered a HUGE job!

 

I will be building a UI for a traffic command center for a large city. The client is a company constructing the command center.

 

What would your recommendation be for a license for this project? I currently have a Shockingly Green license, but this feels like a commercial license is needed?

 

Bottom line is: I build the UI, the client uses that as part of the overall product which is paid for by the government, but the client pays me.

 

Also, who would need the license: me, the client, or the government?

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Hey Johnny. Congrats on the big job! And thanks for being a GreenSock club member. We couldn't do what we do without people like you!

 

Sorry for the long post but I want to be clear and hopefully explain it all. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

 

There is indeed some gray area in this situation. Usually the entity who owns the project is the one who should own the license but not always. For example, if a freelancer makes websites for small companies and those companies don't ever edit the GSAP-related code, only the freelancer needs a business license because his license covers an unlimited amount of unedited projects. However, if one of those companies were to edit the GSAP-related code at any point, they would need to get their own license. Otherwise, it’d make it easy for a huge company like Microsoft to circumvent the license by hiring a freelancer to start a project and then take it in-house and piggy-back on that single-developer license without getting their own license for their numerous developers. See what I mean?

 

So in your situation you need to assess: how many developers will edit GSAP-related code? If there are multiple developers included in that count, are those developers from different companies? If so, I would recommend that the company that has developers included in that count that is furthest down the chain get the license. So if you, the client, and the government all have developers that edit GSAP-related code, I would suggest that the government (really, whatever government branch) get a license to cover all of the developers that will be editing GSAP-related code. If only you and the client edit GSAP-related code and the government are just the end users, I would recommend that the company get the business license. Does that make sense?

 

In terms of how to count developers, it’s based on the number of people who would actually use GreenSock tools. It’s not intended to be a license that gets passed around from person-to-person, like “Hey Sally, can you stop using GreenSock for 5 minutes so I can update something?” So if a company has 3 developers who use GreenSock from time to time, they should get the “Up to 5 developers” license. You can always upgrade later too. 

 

There are also “Enterprise” licenses which add an extra level of protection and flexibility. See our enterprise licensing page for more details.

 

Our entire licensing model (which you can read about at https://greensock.com/why-license/) is based on the honor system and a simple number-of-developers pricing structure. We don’t require that you “register" each person or project, nor do we inject “phone home” scripts that report usage or suddenly cause things to stop working if your license expires. We extend respect to our users and trust that it'll be reciprocated. Thus far, it has worked well. We’ve been doing this for a decade now with no plans to stop. 

 

I’m pretty confident you’ll find that the license pays for itself very quickly when you consider the time it saves you, the added capabilities, performance, reliability, etc. Typically our customers find that it pays for itself literally in a matter of days (or weeks at the most). But if you’re not happy we’ll gladly issue a full refund. We’re passionate about having happy customers around here. 
 

Good luck with your project(s), and happy tweening!

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