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Hello James,
I too would like to thank you for your excellent work you've put into it. Without OpenVPN (and particularly windows compatibility!) I wouldn't be looking at forming a startup company offering secure VPNs for internet cafe users and the like :-)
To bring up your licensing issue, an idea I had that would suit small startups like me, is to make "commercial distribution as part of the base openvpn-gui [or whatever]" free(beer), so for example giving users an unmodified version of the client (1or more specifically, one made of GPL code) would remain free, but if you wanted to make your own propreitary client or use the tun/tap driver as a base point for a project that is not fully GPL'ed, would be grounds for a charge.
I'm looking into making a new, streamlined VPN client on the same idea as openvpn-gui for example, that due to competitors picking up on the certificate exchange part I might wish to keep non-GPL, and not distribute to the wider community. This sort of thing, in my opinion, should incur a charge - not least for incorporating GPL'ed code (in this case, the tun/tap driver and/or openvpn) as a component in it. I believe this might benefit everyone, because by the time pretty much any business gets to this stage they should have the financial backing to support such a fee. (programmer's aren't cheap, either)
What do you think?
Jan
On 07/03/07, Christoph Haas <
email@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, James...
On Wednesday 07 March 2007 09:31, James Yonan wrote:
> As always, it's a challenge to maintain a popular project such as
> OpenVPN on a shoestring, and I'd like to thank everyone who has made a
> contribution thus far.
Thank _you_ for the work you put into it. Although my employer keeps
thinking in terms of "great, we don't have to pay for it" at least my
fellow coworkers understand how superior OpenVPN is compared to most
(all?) commercial SSL-VPN solutions. Just give them CheckPoint's
SecureClient for a year and they would even be willing to pay for
OpenVPN. :)
> The Windows TAP driver is becoming more expensive to support, especially
> with the new Vista driver signing requirements. I plan to jump through
> the hoops so that the Windows TAP driver will be fully signed for Vista,
> however this comes at a recurring cost, and I am considering ways that
> the OpenVPN project can offset these and other costs by increasing its
> sources of revenue.
If Microsoft were decent they would support open-source and provide
certificates for free. But we all know them.
> The Windows TAP driver has always been dual-licensed by OpenVPN
> Solutions LLC, with the GPL license for free usage, and a paid
> commercial license for companies that don't want to be restricted by the
> terms of the GPL, or that want to package the TAP driver in commercial
> software. One method I'm considering to help increase project revenue,
> but in a way that won't affect the vast majority of OpenVPN users, is to
> change the dual-licensing terms for the 2.1 Windows TAP driver, so that
> the free license would explicitly not allow commercial redistribution.
If I understand this just applies to companies that sell products including
the OpenVPN client on Windows, right? Well, my main concern would be that
companies had to pay to just _use_ the OpenVPN software. That would surely
be a problem and might drive some companies to other solutions. Currently
my employer uses OpenVPN because:
- we (geek admins) say it's great
- there is little effort for the user helpdesk
- it's free (beer)
On the downside:
- there is no SLA or support contract (which gets all managers nervous for
no reason - also a reason why we have crappy Linux distributions on many
production servers instead of free distributions like Debian)
So if the "it's free (beer)" argument goes away that will surely make some
companies think about alternative solutions. And I'd really like to be
able to use OpenVPN in commercial environments without limitations.
So if you intend to charge commercial software packagers it would be okay.
I am used to completely free software (Debian) so there are never
limitations even for companies who sell Debian CDs. But we are talking
about Windows here so license issues are more imminent anyway. And
companies that earn money with your software (more than just the price of
a CD recordable plus shipping) may even pay for it. No bad feelings.
Especially as we don't finance your holidays or your new car but pay for
something that's inevitable.
> This would mean that companies that package the Windows version of
> OpenVPN or the Windows TAP driver into a commercial product or service
> would now need to obtain a paid commercial license. Keep in mind that
> the terms of the GPL already restrict commercial redistribution of GPL
> and non-GPL code, and most companies that want to do so already must
> obtain a commercial license, however I'm proposing to make the
> delineation between the free and paid licenses more legally precise, and
> centered on whether or not commercial redistribution is occurring.
Yes please. I hate law stuff. Just make it clear enough so that even
companies who distribute the software internally automatically to their
client PCs are still allowed to do that.
Again, thanks for a great piece of software.
Kindly
Christoph
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