Copyright questions

I think attribution is very important in the FOSS world and will become more important as time goes on. Most people ’do the right thing’ but for those that don’t want to keep attribution intact then I think Ryan’s first suggestion has some merit :-

1) A white label program for dev shops and MODx Partners that will include maintaining their look and feel and contact information in our source repository, and applying patches to every release to maintain their distribution. This will be a private distribution for a specific development shop and can have all mentions of MODx anywhere in the Manager removed.

There is lot of work involved here, more than most people may be willing to do so better to get MODx to do this for you, you also get the benefit that your not going to be chased for any breach of copyright as your not doing this yourself, corporates for instance I think would use this service. Its safe and sound.

Personally I’d rather see the attribution kept in as many installations as possible whilst allowing people to be as free as they wish with MODx but revenue streams are also important to projects, again difficult.

BobRay,


Language strings as supplied by MODx(revo here) are entries in a PHP array, written in PHP, so they are in fact code, also I think CSS is classified as code in itself, any images the CSS loads however aren’t and are copyrightable outside of the GPL license.

GPL is only a distribution licence, meaning that if say I have a MODx installation and modify it and you say hey that’s great and you want one from me then I have to supply you with the source code under the terms of the GPL. I don’t have to do this, also, I don’t have to supply any changes I make back to the community as a whole if I don’t want to and I don’t have to give anyone my changes if I don’t want to. This allows exactly what you said above, people can(and should be allowed to) personalize as they wish as long as they don’t re-distribute the work but you should in my opinion always keep any attribution intact or at least like you said above link to MODx or use a powered by image of some sort.

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs here but it may clarify a point for other readers.

There is much to discuss on this topic, but we’re still a tremendous amount of planning and work before we’ll see either of these options.

MODx is and always will be very pro-developer. We would love to see nothing more than MODx developers making boatloads of cash from the MODx platform. As Jason said, there will always be a GPL distribution—that’s the horse that got us here and the horse we love so dearly. We’re 110% committed to remaining Open Source.

White label may or may not come; it’s just on the table,. If it does, it would mean a specific private subversion branch to maintain and apply your code modifications. This goes beyond simply the language files and base templates, and could include specific add-ons, etc., too. Nothing you couldn’t do yourself, but it would be part of the release process to handle all the merging and changes to keep everything in sync. In fact, it’s likely while label versions would be pushed out days prior to official releases, as there’s not the related release note, announcements, distribution system configurations, etc. to go along with it.

Feel free to make all the language file updates you want. Same goes for CSS tweaks, welcome/login template and help pages (assets/templates/manager/ and assets/templates/help/). That will get you a long way to what you want to accomplish. We simply request you maintain the MODx attribution, and not in some obscure corner of the app that a client will (likely) never click.

[As an aside, there will be a session on customizing the Manager at MODxpo 2010. ]

I think if you are going to customize the language file it makes sense to duplicate the english language file or create a custom one with the overrides wanted. I don’t recommend modding the default lang file as it will get hosed on upgrade if there are changes.

I don’t have a problem with customizing the manager experience but attribution is more than just vanity or for copyright purposes. Ensuring the client knows what CMS they are using will aid them if by chance you retire, get hit by a bus or flee the country and need assistance in modifying the site. If the client needs to get help with their site they can identify the application and possibly come to the forum or go to another developer with informed understanding of their site management.

i received this link from a friend today:
http://www.powellcreativeinc.com/manager/

They have customized the whole login screen with their "own" CMS logo.
Is this allowed. Because the whole MODx name is gone and replaced with their own. So they get all the credits and money.

Wow, what a great thread!

Looking at that "MODx" Manager login that DNA linked to sort of pounds warning bells into my head.

This might be one of those "need to think out the box" arenas.

I am a photographer. Over the years I have tangled with clients who assume too much. One of the oft comments I get is "I hired you to shoot my images so I own them..." As in the client assumes total ownership to do whatever he/she wants including reselling them (the images) to other parties. Wrong! I then have to explain copy right laws and Grant of Rights usage etc. It can get very delicate at times.

One of the things I love about MODx is the openness with the project and the support the community provides. The danger in this topic (removing all MODx references in the front end and back end) is that a client might assume total ownership of a project. It is conceivable that one of us could deliver a project to a client with all references of MODx replaced by "Acme Technology" etc. What happens when Acme Technology decides that the functionality and their branding on the delivered system is so great that they then decide to market the system as their own? Acme might spin this system off to who knows who while not giving credit to where credit is due. I can think of all kinds of bad outcomes here.

To me there would be two losers in this scenario: the developer/designer who delivered the project and the MODx community who built the system in the first place. This kind of thing could get ugly...

and the third loser is the client. Who pays a lot more for a "company" CMS than an open source CMS.

Quote from: DNA at Mar 01, 2010, 11:53 PM

i received this link from a friend today:
http://www.powellcreativeinc.com/manager/

They have customized the whole login screen with their "own" CMS logo.
Is this allowed. Because the whole MODx name is gone and replaced with their own. So they get all the credits and money.

Yes it’s allowed. Otherwise we wouldn’t have made it so easy to do especially in light of upgrades between versions.

Pleth is also a donor, and you should be too. We love ’em!

ah ok. That is clear.

I will definitely donate some money, since i have used modx for a lot of websites.

Wow!Sounds good.You will donate a money?Is it truly truth?Well you have a point,if Im in your side I would probably decide to share my blessings if I will see the progress and the legality of the business.I would suggest to monitor the things that you are donating with for your assurance!Just keep going.Keep donating a blessings from God for you is unstoppable!


guild wars 2 gold

I work for a company very interested in Thrash’s aforementioned "one-off deployments" with santioned "copyright annihilation" that is paid for on a per-URL basis. Is this something that is looking to be realistic in the MODx Partner Program that’s under development? If not, it was also mentioned to at least have the "Powered by MODx" badge of sorts in the footer or the like—is this ok to do in the meantime. As a primarily a design shop the intent here is to implement MODx for client sites and have them directed to us for support. We have no interest (or the dev chops by any means) to redistribute as a different CMS under the GPL licence. This side of open source is new territory for me so set me straight if I’m talkin’ any super dumb stuff here. Hoping to get this discussion a bit more active again.

I heart MODx. Thank you in advance for any input. And as mentioned previously I encourage you to donate to MODx ( http://modxcms.com/community/donate.html). I’m sure any amount whatsoever is helpful and appreciated.