If you share or publish Python scripts they have to be made available compliant to the GNU GPL as well, if they use Blender Python API calls.
In short, all Blender add-ons, whether free or commercial are open source and subject to the GPL.
That means that what @AkashHamirwasia is doing is perfectly legal.
That said, if the goal here is to be a service to the community, then itās a good idea to try and give an indication whether an add-on is offered commerciallyā¦ perhaps with a suggestion that the person using Blender Depot, go through with purchasing the add-on directly from the author. They can still use Blender Depot for updates and batch installs or whatever, but that step at least gives a more positive impression to people who might incorrectly assume that youāre making a tool to simply leech off of other peoplesā hard work.
Thank you everyone for not jumping me. I use strong language to get noticed but I was trying to get some discussion started. More than that, Iām hoping for new ideas. This is one of those things where many heads is better than one. It is a complicated issue.
Addon devs need to be in the money. Lots of it. Brainstorming works best with many brains. It can also jolt old burnt-out brains like mine into maybe adding to the conversation. Ideas spawn ideas and refinements.
Or something like that. LOL. I just know thereās always a better way but itās seldom obvious and usually not easy. Thanks again everyone and have a great day.
Lets release every paid add-on for free witouth the creator consent and let see how it will destroy the current add-on ecosystemā¦ yāall see, it will be a funny rideā¦
thereās a lot of open source extremism in the blender community i really donāt like that.
@LarryPhillips@Fweeb@BD3D
After considering all your replies, I am proposing the following solution for the platform.
Blender Depot never mentioned that it will list free or paid add-ons. It clearly mentioned open-source add-ons in the video and on the site. But by doing this, paid add-ons which are open source (please keep in mind that open source does not mean free software) got listed on the site which ended up harming the developers of the add-ons which spent time in developing them (as even I develop and sell paid add-ons for Blender).
Going forward, the platform would be updated to redirect users to purchase page (if they sell through the Blender Market or Gumroad) rather than directly downloading from the site. Although I am not sure how this would be fair for people that donāt sell through these platforms.
Also, since Blender Depot is built on the GitHub search, itās hard to implement these features directly in the platform. Hence, we would require a user submitted add-ons list in the future that this platform could use(possibly discuss more on this).
Either way, Blender Depot is supposed to be for the good of the Blender Community and I donāt aim to harm the developers of the add-ons through this platform.
I see no issue here.Blender is free and open source.if devs want to make some things easier or faster in blender fine.if they want to charge a REASONABLE price.thats fine too.
The bottom line is this, if you want x add-on,then buy it.if you think y add-on is outlandishly expensive,DONāT BUY IT! see simple.over time the obviously greedy devs will be weeded out.
so patience my grasshoppers.
Iām not an open-source extremist. You are talking about socialists when you say that. Iām a hardcore value-for-value capitalist (the good kind).
If you canāt get around the license with added value then youāre stuck in a box. If that can make or break you I suggest not building a business on such a flawed foundation. If you want to use (negative) politics or harassment to shore up your sales or rely on strangers in the community to do it for you then go for it. Expect people like me to stink up your threads.
I donāt accuse anyone to be that in this topic , itās a large generalisation.
What Iām saying is that screaming out loud to everyone the fact that every addon ever created can be shared for free is not a good move for the future/current status of blender. Itās like shooting ourself in the foot.
When you look at max and maya thereās huge Addons that add wonderful additions to workflows. And thoses addons become the software itself, some peoples use maya just for a grooming addon. Some people use max just for tyflow,fume Fx, pheonix fdā¦ ectā¦
thoses addons just by themself are really important for the software and the consumer. It bring new users and make the software better for professionals.
Things like that will never happend if constantly bring this message to the table.
To the contrary. Itās never been a secret that all Blender add-ons are subject to the GPLā¦ and it shouldnāt ever be. The Blender Market still thrives despite this. It thrives because we have an ethical community of people who both want to get work done and want to have continued access to their tools, not because no one knows they can get commercial add-ons without cost if they look for them.
Nowā¦ this thread is definitely starting to veer off-topic. If you want to continue this line of discussion, I encourage you to start a new thread. Feel free to link to it from this one. But at this point, letās keep the discussion here on the specific topic of Blender Depot.
I hope that this project Blender- Depot will become a great and interesting blender-addon repository, I also hope that with the growth of it, donation systems to addonsā developers will be added, so that comunity can support their favorite addons developers , and that demonstrates the true value of being part of an opensource community that shares and supports the entire community.
Please folks, as I mentioned before, sty on topic. If youāre speaking about Blender Depot, continue to post here. Otherwise, Iāve split off a whole mess of posts to another thread to discuss add-ons with respect to the GPL.
Caution: Donāt assume that it is legal just because Blender has a GPL license. The GPL covers only the program and its source code.
Does the addon maybe ship with a picture of the developerās cat as a default texture? Thatās covered by ordinary copyright. Youāre infringing on it, if you copy the image without the authorās permission.
Chances are that whatever an addon package consists of, at least some of it is not explicitly licensed to be freely copied, perhaps just the README. You canāt assume you can just copy the file you purchased and share it with other people.
In many cases, it may be trivial to replace all the non-GPL parts and release a ātruly free packageā. This is work the ācommunityā would have to put in, not the addon author.
Iād like to release my addon under the gpl liscence in the blender market but i donāt want it to be shared for free on your website.
Is this possible ?