Computer Software Question
1Is it possible to modify a commonly available “free” computer program such that it works nearly flawlessly but whose UI is made so complex that a staffing business could be built around providing temps to operate the software for the end user?
Also, what is a Value Added Tax, and would such a tax apply to the modified “free” software if a customer uses the staffing service?
Asking for a friend.
/image gnu free software question
- 7 comments, 6 replies
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Just for clarification: Possible is not the same thing as legal
Haven’t read up on it in a while, but I think with GPL, you can sell it for whatever you want, but you must make the modifications that you have made available, upon request, for free. (Not a lawyer, this is not legal advice)
I agree with @lichme. Most OS software has a “information wants to be free” clause in the PU license verbiage.
Well yeah, just look at PTC software with enclosed documentation designed to obsfucate so you hafta buy training.
@cranky1950 @ruouttaurmind Thanks for these examples. They seem to be very much what I was thinking about.
/image it’s been done
Everything else aside, how do you think this business will work?
You are going to be offering a product that’s just a more difficult to use version of a “widely available free computer program”, and expect enough people to both start using it and pay for help using it to support a team of temps and the agency itself?
I hope you have a huge advertising budget.
@Seeds It would be more difficult to use, but ideally it would be significantly more reliable and bug-free than what’s available for free. So, I think the idea is kaput given the GPL.
/image kaput
@eonfifty Ah gotcha. I thought you were just going to slap a complicated interface on it and leave it as-is otherwise.
Value Added Tax (A.k.a. VAT) is sales/use tax in Europe… the language is definitely Queen’s English.
It depends on the market sector you’re planning on. Good examples of the business model of complicating the UI beyond reason would be the old SABRE, and MLS systems, both designed to create a certain hocus pocus around the systems, forcing laypeople to rely on specialized agents.
If you’re developing a vertical app, you’ll have better likelihood of success than if you’re taking an OS product like LibreOffice and working for a mass appeal product. It’s highly unlikely you’d have success competing against uncomplicated low cost products in this sector.
@eonfifty You should probably first try to figure why the UI is the way it is- was this just a case of programmers building a UI and just stuffing things in there as new features were added, or is the thing the program is trying to do inherently complex, such that it’s not trivial to make a simple UI?
Also, if you like the program, but not the interface, it seems like a better opportunity is to be a support partner in the community and provide training/consulting/custom work (check out the stuff Collabora does with LibreOffice).
It’s not impossible to build businesses around GPL’d programs- plenty of companies do it, and it seems to be a bigger deal in Europe.
Nah all you gotta do is buy your way into becoming DoD more medical device prefered format and the money just rolls in. Hell Apple still has the Artsy Fartsy crowd completely hornswoggled.
@cranky1950 I like your reply even though I don’t yet understand it enough to respond intelligently.
/image i can’t even
@cranky1950 oops more is the autocorrect version of or.