Which DUAL Licence should I choose.

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Thomas Schneider (Thomas.Schneider at thsitc.com):

> Hello David again,
> 
>    First thanks for your advise. :-)
>    Second I *do* want to pay royalties to Contributor's (measured in
> number of contributed source code lines), when possible.
> 
> The whole intent would be to get a Network of IT Professional's
> maintaining (and selling)  the Software in question.
> 
> I'm currenlty just writing an Installation Procedure which will
> require Identification of all User's of the Software,
> but am still struggling around with the Licence issues.

If you want to understand how the key concepts of open source might
apply to the software work you are developing, imagine a scenario where,
ten years after your software's introduction, you cease development and
end-of-life your product -- but a large third-party user and developer
community wishes for the code to continue.  For decades, under the
prevalent proprietary licensing common to software, this widely felt
wish was futile:  Nobody but the copyright owner had the legal right to
further develop and release the code, let alone to redistribute it with
or without charge, let alone to adapt and use it for any purpose.

Those of us who were excited but then dismayed by the rise and then fall
of DeScribe, WordPerfect, etc. got tired of this cycle of availability
and withdrawal.  Open source was and is a permanent solution to the
problem:  A codebase whose licence permits third-party forking by anyone
without restrictions on usage or required payments is one that can
outlast the disappearance, change of policies, or other obstacles tied
to any specific maintainer including the original coder.  

Many coders are unwilling to yield enough control to make that possible.
That sounds as if it might be true in your case.  No problem:  You have
the right to create proprietary software of whatever sort you wish.  But
then, it just will not be open source, and people who prefer open source
on account of its long-term benefits may prefer open source alternatives
to your creations.

-- 
Cheers,                         Q: Why did Douglas Hofstadter cross the road?
Rick Moen                       A: To make this joke possible.
rick at linuxmafia.com  
McQ!  (4x80)