Licensing question

[jonathon]

Clayton Dukes wrote:

> 1. I want to allow smaller companies, say less than 50 employees, use
my software free of charge.

Which means that a company that has one thousand temps, and one
permanent employee can use your software free of charge.

And if a company has fifty one permanent employees it has to pay for it.

If those are not the scenarios you intended, rethink what you do intend,
and rewrite that intention accordingly.

> 2. Larger companies will pay a licensing fee (based on the size of the
company).

*  An automobile manufacturer with 500 full time employees is consider
to be "small business".
*  A stamp dealer with 20 employees is considered to be "a very large
business".

* A SOHO that generates more than US$1,000,000 gross revenue per year is
one that is doing very well;
* A retail store that generates less than US$1,000,000 gross revenue
year, is one that is heading into bankruptcy;

Think about how you are defining, and applying the term "larger
company". Also think about the metrics that you are using for that
definition.

> 3. Any modifications/bug fixes should be shared back.

What happens when the person, or organization can not _legally_ share
their modifications/ bug fixes with you?

What happens when the modifications/bug fixes that are shared back, are
rejected by your organization?

I don't know how often those scenarios occur, but every major FLOSS
project has had to deal with both of those scenarios, at least once, in
the last five years.

> 4. Users cannot use my code in a commercial product without my permission.

How do you define "commercial product"?

Or more precisely, what  will you do when somebody claims, and provides
supporting documentation that their software, is non-commercial, even
though it is being sold through non-gratis retail channels?

jonathon