Disabing a paid extension of our plugin if the licence is not renewed, is doing this too agressive?

[Nicola Peluchetti]

We are refactoring our plugin (
http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-event-calendar by the way it says
it hasn't been updated in 2 years, i released 1.10.5 two months ago but i
will open another thread for this ) to have a basic core and then sell
extensions.

What i plan to do is disable the extension if the licence is not renewed or
not entered. This basically means "do not add actions and filters for the
extension if the licence is not valid". So if the user after one year do
not renew the licence, i will make a call from our store to our API and
set the extension as disabled.

Do you think this is too aggressive?Would you advice against this?

*Nicola Peluchetti - Senior PHP Developer @ Timely*
Twitter: @nik_peluchetti <https://twitter.com/#!/nik_peluchetti>
Facebook: nicola.peluchetti <https://www.facebook.com/nicola.peluchetti>
Stackoverflow: Stackoverflow<http://stackoverflow.com/users/397861/nicola-peluchetti>
Mobile: [phone]

[Nicholas Ciske]

If you did that to me or a client, I'd never buy a plugin from you again, that's for certain.

So... yes, way too aggressive. Yes, I'd advise strongly against it.

Re-read the GPL and Plugin Guidelines and ask yourself if you'd want a plugin author to do that to your WP site... then provide enough value that users happily stay current on their support/upgrades license (those are fine to disable if not paid for, but plugin code is not).

_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Do you think this is too aggressive? Would you advice against this?

[Daniel]

I second that, and if I known about it beforehand I wouldn't even buy
it in the first place.
Regards,
Daniel Fenn

Post by Nicholas Ciske
If you did that to me or a client, I'd never buy a plugin from you again, that's for certain.
So... yes, way too aggressive. Yes, I'd advise strongly against it.
Re-read the GPL and Plugin Guidelines and ask yourself if you'd want a plugin author to do that to your WP site... then provide enough value that users happily stay current on their support/upgrades license (those are fine to disable if not paid for, but plugin code is not).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Do you think this is too aggressive? Would you advice against this?

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[Chip Bennett]

Doing that is absolutely, unequivocally not compatible with the GPL or with
free software philosophy in general.

Disabling the Plugin functionality for failure to pay a recurring
subscription is a use restriction that conflicts with GPL. GNU has also
explicitly stated that an API that is purely a use license API is not GPL
compatible.


On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 6:51 PM, Nicola Peluchetti <

Post by Nicola Peluchetti
We are refactoring our plugin (
http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-event-calendar by the way it says
it hasn't been updated in 2 years, i released 1.10.5 two months ago but i
will open another thread for this ) to have a basic core and then sell
extensions.
What i plan to do is disable the extension if the licence is not renewed or
not entered. This basically means "do not add actions and filters for the
extension if the licence is not valid". So if the user after one year do
not renew the licence, i will make a call from our store to our API and
set the extension as disabled.
Do you think this is too aggressive?Would you advice against this?
Facebook: nicola.peluchetti <https://www.facebook.com/nicola.peluchetti>
Stackoverflow: Stackoverflow<
http://stackoverflow.com/users/397861/nicola-peluchetti>
Mobile: [phone]
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[Daniel]

So the plug-in can even get taken out of the repo.

Post by Chip Bennett
Doing that is absolutely, unequivocally not compatible with the GPL or with
free software philosophy in general.
Disabling the Plugin functionality for failure to pay a recurring
subscription is a use restriction that conflicts with GPL. GNU has also
explicitly stated that an API that is purely a use license API is not GPL
compatible.
On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 6:51 PM, Nicola Peluchetti <

Post by Nicola Peluchetti
We are refactoring our plugin (
http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-event-calendar by the way it says
it hasn't been updated in 2 years, i released 1.10.5 two months ago but i
will open another thread for this ) to have a basic core and then sell
extensions.
What i plan to do is disable the extension if the licence is not renewed or
not entered. This basically means "do not add actions and filters for the
extension if the licence is not valid". So if the user after one year do
not renew the licence, i will make a call from our store to our API and
set the extension as disabled.
Do you think this is too aggressive?Would you advice against this?
Facebook: nicola.peluchetti <https://www.facebook.com/nicola.peluchetti>
Stackoverflow: Stackoverflow<
http://stackoverflow.com/users/397861/nicola-peluchetti>
Mobile: [phone]
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[Dino Termini]

I think you guys misinterpreted what he was saying. He's talking about
add-ons that extend the main plugin's functionality. The one available
on the repository would be free and fully functioning, while add-ons
would be available for a fee. He's asking if it would be okay to disable
the add-on if no license is entered.

We had explored this option with WP SlimStat (
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-slimstat/ ) , but we ended up using the
license key mainly to make sure that those who purchased the add-on get
notified when an update is available (pretty much what Envato does).
Again, our main plugin is available for free and it's fully functioning.
No features are disable, ever. Those who need more, purchase our premium
add-ons, which are fully functional even without a license fee (after
all, how hard would it be to tweak the code to circumvent such a silly
limitation in an open source software?).

Best,
Dino.

Post by Daniel
So the plug-in can even get taken out of the repo.

[Chip Bennett]

Main Plugin, extensions, whatever. If you're disabling *functionality*,
then you're restricting *use*, which is GPL-incompatible.

You can disable access to updates and/or support (see Mika's previous
email) and remain GPL-compatible. But you cannot restrict *usage* if you
wish to remain GPL-compatible.

Post by Dino Termini
I think you guys misinterpreted what he was saying. He's talking about
add-ons that extend the main plugin's functionality. The one available on
the repository would be free and fully functioning, while add-ons would be
available for a fee. He's asking if it would be okay to disable the add-on
if no license is entered.
We had explored this option with WP SlimStat (
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-slimstat/ ) , but we ended up using the
license key mainly to make sure that those who purchased the add-on get
notified when an update is available (pretty much what Envato does). Again,
our main plugin is available for free and it's fully functioning. No
features are disable, ever. Those who need more, purchase our premium
add-ons, which are fully functional even without a license fee (after all,
how hard would it be to tweak the code to circumvent such a silly
limitation in an open source software?).
Best,
Dino.

Post by Daniel
So the plug-in can even get taken out of the repo.

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[Nicholas Ciske]

We're not misunderstanding ;-)

Cutting off support and upgrades is OK -- they have no right to that under the GPL.

Disabling code that was working/active because you did not renew a license is not compatible with the GPL. Even if it's a paid add-on, if it touches the WP API, it becomes GPL code.

The issue is removing access to code that is not yours to revoke anymore. Once you give them GPL code, you can't take it back... that's the core tenet of the GPL.

If you want to remove access if they are not paying you, you have to make a serviceware plugin and run the "service" on your server. e.g. Akismet, VaultPress, etc.

Those don't deactivate when you stop paying, they simply stop providing the service you were paying for (the GPL code remains intact and running). They will not break or cripple your site in the process. And, yes, deactivating a plugin without notifying the user will break some sites.

_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

I think you guys misinterpreted what he was saying. He's talking about add-ons that extend the main plugin's functionality. The one available on the repository would be free and fully functioning, while add-ons would be available for a fee. He's asking if it would be okay to disable the add-on if no license is entered.

[Dino Termini]

Thank you for clarifying, got it.

Post by Nicholas Ciske
We're not misunderstanding ;-)

[Madalin Ignisca]

You can't do that with GPL license. You can cut him off upgrades from your
official source only. Please read all open source licenses very careful,
there are other platforms you can migrate too if you have those wishes with
your software (take a look at Concrete5 that you can do exactly how you
intend to do). Choosing WordPress implies you to follow it's rules, if not,
choose the platform that offers you that possibility. It's that simple.

Post by Dino Termini
Thank you for clarifying, got it.

Post by Nicholas Ciske
We're not misunderstanding ;-)

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[Nicola Peluchetti]

Obviously i was planning to do what Dino was saying, have a core plugin
which is always free and always work and sell some extensions from our
website and in case only disable those extensions.
But the feedback received suggest we only disable updates ( i think EDD
does that automatically so no problems here ), thanks for helping with this.


*Nicola Peluchetti - Senior PHP Developer @ Timely*
Twitter: @nik_peluchetti <https://twitter.com/#!/nik_peluchetti>
Facebook: nicola.peluchetti <https://www.facebook.com/nicola.peluchetti>
Stackoverflow: Stackoverflow<http://stackoverflow.com/users/397861/nicola-peluchetti>
Mobile: [phone]


On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Madalin Ignisca

Post by Madalin Ignisca
You can't do that with GPL license. You can cut him off upgrades from your
official source only. Please read all open source licenses very careful,
there are other platforms you can migrate too if you have those wishes with
your software (take a look at Concrete5 that you can do exactly how you
intend to do). Choosing WordPress implies you to follow it's rules, if not,
choose the platform that offers you that possibility. It's that simple.

Post by Dino Termini
Thank you for clarifying, got it.

Post by Nicholas Ciske
We're not misunderstanding ;-)

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--
*Madalin Ignisca*
*web developer*
http://imadalin.ro/
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[Ipstenu the Half-Elf]

As you've presented it, it's against the WPORG guidelines for plugins
and reason for us to shut your plugin down for phoning home if it's done
on the plugin in the ORG repo.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/about/guidelines/ (see #5 through #7)

Now... I want to stress something. You can totally do this in a way that
is both friendly to the WPORG repository AND the GPL.

You see, having a free core plugin in the WPORG repository and selling
add-ons from your own site is PERFECTLY FINE. Easy Digital Downloads
does it. However, the license check EDD uses is for getting updates for
the add-ons, and it's not a part of the core plugin but the children.
Also EDD does not disable the plugin when you don't pay, it disables
your ability to get UPDATES. So you don't get new versions anymore.

So here, you're not going to shut down my site for not paying (something
any reasonably annoyed code tweaker could turn off in about 10 minutes
anyway, just FYI, by removing that check), you're paywalling my updates,
so I can no longer get the new version which might save me headaches in
a year when you update the core code base and now my extra cool add-on
stops working.

You can do this. You should, however, keep in mind the fact that you're
now making people pay for something that was free, and that rarely goes
well. I would instead upgrade all the features of the free version, and
then have all the NEW features be pay-for. It may take a while to build
up that audience, but it's possible.

3 March, 2014 at 3:51:54PM
We are refactoring our plugin (
http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-event-calendar by the way it says
it hasn't been updated in 2 years, i released 1.10.5 two months ago but i
will open another thread for this ) to have a basic core and then sell
extensions.
What i plan to do is disable the extension if the licence is not renewed or
not entered. This basically means "do not add actions and filters for the
extension if the licence is not valid". So if the user after one year do
not renew the licence, i will make a call from our store to our API and
set the extension as disabled.
Do you think this is too aggressive?Would you advice against this?
Facebook: nicola.peluchetti <https://www.facebook.com/nicola.peluchetti>
Stackoverflow<http://stackoverflow.com/users/397861/nicola-peluchetti>
Mobile: [phone]
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http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
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