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General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone advise this developer on commercial licensing?

« Last post by mmike on November 27, 2014, 08:52 AM »

It seems I took the right turn.

-mmike (November 23, 2014, 05:36 AM)

Does that mean you are not going to release Vis-à-Wiki commercially then?

-dr_andus (November 23, 2014, 07:25 PM)

Currently I don't see a reasonable way how to do it.

Except some other person is willing to stand in the front row for some share of the profit. I know there are people who don't have a problem with this, but then there would need to be a big amount of trust towards that person and one would need to find someone like that.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone advise this developer on commercial licensing?

« Last post by mmike on November 27, 2014, 08:48 AM »

Personally I think the way software patents are handled is a detriment to advancing software development, but I think many people take the risk because it is a relatively low risk in many cases.

Unless you become a huge success, there isn't enough money to go for that it is worth the cost of litigation. Until that happens, I think you are more likely to be targeted by a larger player in the field simply to shut down the competition.

-Jibz (November 24, 2014, 01:27 AM)

You are probably right, still it's not a good situation.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone advise this developer on commercial licensing?

« Last post by mmike on November 23, 2014, 05:36 AM »

Thank you all for your responses.

It seems I took the right turn.

@mouser: I'm not afraid of life, but my goal is to reduce unnecessary risk and enjoy life. A nice job is also a very viable option for me.
 

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General Software Discussion / Re: Can anyone advise this developer on commercial licensing?

« Last post by mmike on November 21, 2014, 05:19 AM »

Hi guys,

I'm the creator of that software.

The main liability threat I see are software patent claims.

I thought there would not be any issues when I just don't sell to the US, but during the preparations of founding a small company to sell my work I learned, that we have software patents in the EU and with this in Germany. Furthermore German law (I don't know about other countries) holds me responsilbe with all my **personal** belongings in case of (software) patent claims.

I don't know of any contrete patent my work violates, but research on software patents show, you cannot be sure and you should assume you just do violate some.

Well I do know, that the risk of getting sued in such a case is not very high, especially not in Germany today, but selling such a software means doing it for years and even if you stop the claims are valid for several more years. Looking at cases in the US I think it is just a matter of time, till we get those cases in the EU/Germany. Still down the road and not very likely, but I'm very risk-averse so I got out. (You cannot insure yourself against patent claims and a German GmbH (compare Limited in UK) doesn't protect you personally in such cases.)

That said, maybe open source is an option, but I'm not completey sure about patent claims there. Remember the patent threads against Linux some time ago? Furthermore it is quite a large project, financed completely by my own (I worked over a year on it full time, it is not just the wiki and it is build to be large: flexible document management, metadata, combined export, scripting, version control, source code interaction, license handling and dependency view generation are in parts implemented and not very far away) and I'm not sure if I would be happy to offer it for free.

I'm happy for input, on how others handle that situation and how I could release it without any liability risk.

Thank you very much.