Licensing Question

[addam]

Hello,

I've been looking over the standard license (https://greensock.com/standard-license/) and I have two questions. For some context, I'm currently working with a client and recommending they use Greensock as an animation library. 

 

1. Does this passage mean that my client will need to opt out of public identification by the Greensock team if we use the library on their site?

 

Quote

You agree that GREENSOCK may identify you as a licensee unless you make a written request otherwise. GREENSOCK hereby grants to you the right to disclose that your product, game, software application, component, or other Developed Work makes use of GREENSOCK code (for example, "Powered by TweenLite").

 

2. The project we are working on is for a subsection of their site – think of a standalone landing page. They do have paid components of the site which will not utilize Greensock, however this landing page will and is not behind a paywall. It will be accessible to the public. I don't believe this will require a "Business Green" membership but I want to be sure. Is my assumption correct?

 

[GreenSock]

5 hours ago, addam said:

I'm currently working with a client and recommending they use GreenSock as an animation library. 

Excellent. Good choice 

 

5 hours ago, addam said:

1. Does this passage mean that my client will need to opt out of public identification by the GreenSock team if we use the library on their site?

Nothing fancy is required - just let us know. An email or contact-us form submission is fine. Obviously we'd need to know the name of the client in order to honor that request. 

 

5 hours ago, addam said:

2. The project we are working on is for a subsection of their site – think of a standalone landing page. They do have paid components of the site which will not utilize Greensock, however this landing page will and is not behind a paywall. It will be accessible to the public. I don't believe this will require a "Business Green" membership but I want to be sure. Is my assumption correct?

It does sound like a "Business Green" license would be appropriate since GSAP would be used on the site and there are fees collected for usage of some aspects of the site (right?) That being said, I can see why it would seem like a gray area. As you may know, our posture around licensing relies heavily on the honor system and we genuinely try to bend over backwards to serve our customers rather than burning resources hunting down violators of the license. We trust that if we keep our heads down, cranking out top-notch products and delivering second-to-none support, the market will respond and WANT to support our efforts. After all, it ultimately benefits them because the support allows us to keep innovating and supporting the tools. But we're not inclined to pressure anyone. 95%+ of our users never pay us a dime. 

 

My hope is that when you and your client compare all the value you'd get from GreenSock tools (the time they save, improved performance, compatibility, reliability, support, etc.) to the cost, it'll be a no-brainer to sign up for Club GreenSock. If not, we don't want your money, really.

 

It's pretty common for the membership to pay for itself literally in a matter of days. 

 

I totally get that it might be awkward for you to explain to your client this "extra cost" but...

1. I'd encourage you to lay out the options and let them choose, but don't forget to include all the costs and risks of going with an alternative. Sorta like "we can use an industry standard, battle-tested suite of tools with unmatched capabilities for $___ and that'll probably shave ___ hours off the project (representing $___). These tools have a years-long track record of outstanding support so if we run into trouble, we can get help. OR we can go with this other open source alternative ___ which is free up front but it'll take ___ more development hours, the performance isn't as good, it might break in a few browsers, and we won't be able to do whiz-bang advanced stuff that'll make your brand look amazing. It may also get abandoned (open source projects often do) in which case we'll have to port everything over to a different toolset in the future which may cost $____. If we run into trouble, we can file a Github issue and hope to get a response within a few weeks."  You get the point, not that I'm biased in any way.  
2. You can get the license yourself and just bake it into your cost to them so you don't even need to have this discussion with them. Your license covers all of your unedited Work Products. If they end up wanting to take it over after you deliver it (so they can edit the GSAP-related code), they can get their own license but YOUR work would be totally covered in an unlimited number of projects as long as your membership is active. 

Does that answer your questions adequately? 

 

Happy tweening!