Copyright footer requirement?

I am new to your forum and am also pretty sure this question has been asked before. If so, I apologize in advance; however I have run several queries for this information and have been unable to find a specific answer.

My query is, as the subject suggests, if the ’Is Powered by MODx cms’ copyright footer required to remain at the bottom of the pages in order to use this CMS? Thanks, in advance, for any help with this.

Regards,
Martin

Absolutely not.
MODx tends to speak for itself. Not that David M’s Job is easy marketing this CMS, but when there is a CMS that is so intuitive and useful that it doesn’t need to rely on required product placement ads on every single website that it helped create... well, that is just one of hundreds of thousands of great things that makes MODx stand out against it’s peers and parents .

Of course, if you want to, there are even premade images you could use to link back to MODx.

If you like MODx, share it with other people you know that might be interested in a great CMS, contribute some code in the forum, or donate, but you don’t have to clutter and/or break your design to force a link back here,

-sD-
Dr. Scotty Delicious, Scientist.

Well put ! I couldn’t have said it better Scotty

Quote from: Dr. at Dec 09, 2006, 08:01 PM

MODx tends to speak for itself. Not that David M’s Job is easy marketing this CMS,

Marketing MODx is really a pleasure because :

• MODx is different : lots of systems call themselves content management frameworks, but how many of them actually are (have a real API and dbAPI) ?
• MODx is fun : flexibility might be scary and you can feel a bit lots at first, but when you do realize the potential you can get creative and it’s just fun to work with such flexibility.
• MODx has a great community : it can’t be stressed enough, this is key to this software and to many contributors. Ideas are flowing, people share, debate... it’s one of the big MODx "X factor".

Yes Scotty, in a way it does speak for itself
It’s never hard pitching a product you believe in and enjoy using yourself

The main things my job is about is :

• have people know about MODx, then it can speak for itself
• have people identify that it’s "different" from what they know, and how they can benefit from this difference (flexible tool => creativity can flow)
• emphasize about MODx not being the tool for everyone (see Ryan’s signature, sums it up quite well) : we’ve learned. Some people were having the wrong expectation, because they thought MODx was Joomla or something like it : thus the frustration. MODx is a powerful tool for web standards aware creative people and code savvy people, but not yet for the end user expecting a pre-packaged tool (though thanks to you, the Resources Wizard is a big step toward more end user friendliness )

And, just to be totally clear, omitting the "powered by MODx" has absolutely no effect on whether you can ask questions in the support forums. I know some other systems have a "no link, no support" rule. We don’t even need you to tell us what your URL is - which is great if you don’t actually want your clients or your client’s customers to know how the site is built.

What about the copyright notice on the manager login form? There was a discussion specifically involving a *nuke variant, and the GNU/GPL response was that if a copyright display notice is part of the actual original core code it must remain. I don’t agree with this ruling for reasons I have gone into before, but I’ve never received a response from the GNU/GPL people in regard to my objection.

I guess the solution there (from MODx’s pov) is to license the manager login template differently...

Although if you wanted to be really picky and avoid all hassles (though I don’t see why you’d want to go this far for mere form ), you could make a completely separate HTML file called index.html with almost identical HTML code in for the form itself. Then just have .htaccess make sure that when you go to yoursite.com/manager it reads your index.html file first.

Et voila! A form that doesn’t require the copyright and circumvents the licensing issues therein.

The manager side of things is where it definitely gets more touchy, and frankly little tricks like Pete mentioned really gets under my skin. I’d honestly not hesitate to ban someone’s account for that if they’re caught, and definitely wouldn’t encourage anyone to offer support to anyone practicing such behavior. That’s assuming of course the policy was clear. I’m not even so concerned about the login form as I am what’s behind the authenticated MODx manager login.

That completely goes against the spirit of recognizing the 10,000+ hours and more real dollars that went into getting MODx to the point where it is today. Front end or other publicly visible stuff is completely understandable for "hiding" the solution and I think that makes a lot of sense (security via obscurity). However, the back end manager is an integral part of MODx, and something I personally think where credit should remain.

If there’s enough demand for it, and there have been other inquiries, we’ll do a version with an annual license to support unbranded managers. I can’t see it going for less than $499-999/year, and I could easily see making an argument for a figure 10x that or more.

Quote from: rthrash at Dec 11, 2006, 04:43 PM

I’m not even so concerned about the login form as I am what’s behind the authenticated MODx manager login.

Indeed, as the login form can be used to log into the front-end as a "manager" user, and can be seen by a non-logged-in user, it seems logical to me that the copyright *there* could be validly removed by a different manager theme without affecting the license or the recognition of the hours of work that MODx represents. But at the end of the day, it’s not my decision to make. A clear line would be very useful.

To be absolutely clear, I think the Credits page is sufficient, but I have no personal intention of changing the copyright (especially now it is better worded than previously). Clients are aware that it is MODx, although one insists on pronouncing it "mode-ex"...

Passing MODx off to clients as your own work is a very bad idea. It’s quite straightforward to sell the benefits of using open source software as the basis of your website / application, and actually puts a higher price on your own work. It is better that someone pays you $x to design and develop a site and configure things than for them to think that same $x got them a bespoke CMS - as this will make future quotes for additional custom features make more sense!

I actually agree 100% with what Ryan Thrash said (sorry paul). but where in a site design would an end viewer (not a content creator/editor or web master) view the login at yoursite.url/manager/index.php ?

I don’t even think that the initial form presented at the manager login page should be editable. I think it is quite a luxury that the devs have condoned skinning of the manager. It is just one step away of some web designer skinning the manager to reflect his/her design studio’s logo and theme colors and selling his/her "solution" to customers as "BRAND-z" while at the same time scavenging the forums for help. Not necessarily a problem, except that folks shady enough to do that rarely help move a community and a product forward and more than likely make obscure demands and requests and shout

"MODx needs to implement this feature. I would do it myself, but I am not a coder. by the way, I am on a deadline to make money of your product... don’t have time to help the project, let alone solve any issues myself... so I need one of the developers to have this plugin/snippet/module ready for me within the next 2 days."

The fact that you are not required to put a copyright or a link back to modx on your "front end" is a huge plus. It opens this framework to many types of jobs that this projects parent may not have been suitable for. Such as commercial sites that are not in the business of advertising CMS/CMF’s. That would break the flow of content and design. But the Manager... That IS the tool. You chose to use it because it is the best. why would anyone with any sense of decency wish to disregard <quote ryan> the 10,000+ hours and more real dollars that went into getting MODx to the point where it is today.</quote ryan>. especially as it is not visible to your visitors.

People will do what they want, but lets keep it real and be cool.... ok. MODx is a great tool. MODx Developers are great people. Real people. Don’t just disregard them because you want to "brand" something or remove a copyright notice. Doesn’t seem fair if you ask the doc.

-sD-
Dr. Scotty Delicious, Scientist.