Plugins and money
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Hello,
Apologies in advance.
I exclusively use notepad++ for every kind of text editing. In fact, while writing python code, I prefer to write in notepad++ and may be execute in Eclipse. But, as the situation goes, I am going to need some sort of employment two months from now. Since I have been using notepad++ for about 5-7 years now, if I think hard enough I can come up of some plugins. The question is is there a way to get any sort of money (I don’t drink beer)?
Thanks,
-Neel. -
I’m sure there are some exceptions, but by and large the Notepad++ concept is one of “free”. Sorry. And good luck to you.
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@Alan-Kilborn Thanks! :-)
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There was one situation I was paid (money, not beer) to do plugin development and it is perfectly fine/legal.
One thing to keep in mind is licensing. Most likely you will have to release the code under GPLv3. Which means the payer is paying for the development/enhancement of an open source plugin to be released to the general public. They are not paying for sole usage and ownership of the plugin.
There are other situations that may be different but in general licensing is the biggest influence.
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@dail Nice points about licensing.
My comments were intended to clue the OP in that plugin writing is a very dubious way to make money.
I think I got that point across. -
@dail said in Plugins and money:
the payer is paying for the development/enhancement of an open source plugin to be released to the general public. They are not paying for sole usage and ownership of the plugin.
So if this is a “point-to-point” agreement between two parties, how would the “general public” even know this plugin exists?
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@Alan-Kilborn said in Plugins and money:
So if this is a “point-to-point” agreement between two parties, how would the “general public” even know this plugin exists?
Presumably, if it’s released under GPLv3, either the developer or the payer would be allowed to add the plugin to the Plugins list, or otherwise distribute and link to it from other locations.
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@PeterJones said in Plugins and money:
@Alan-Kilborn said in Plugins and money:
So if this is a “point-to-point” agreement between two parties, how would the “general public” even know this plugin exists?
Presumably, if it’s released under GPLv3, either the developer or the payer would be allowed to add the plugin to the Plugins list, or otherwise distribute and link to it from other locations.
I will of course state ‘I am not a lawyer’…with that said…
There’s a several different scenarios that could play out…which I kind of alluded to in the last sentence of my post. But from my understanding in general…
One scenario…If a company develops a plugin to be used completely internal to the company, then there is no requirement to license or release the code as it is not being distributed.
The other main scenario…if the company wants to take said plugin and give/sell it to its customers, then that’s when it crosses the line as being distributed and in general would need to have a compatible license with Notepad++. Of course nothing forces them (i.e. the company) to do this from the start, but legally a user has a right to this code.
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While I agree with the general concept of Npp is free (as in FOSS), I must point out that there are numerous plugins available in Plugin Admin that do not make the source code available and have not for years. The lack of available source code may not be in the spirit of Npp, but it certainly has been well tolerated.
As @dail put it “I am not a lawyer” and I would not care to speculate on using this observation of closed source tolerance as a legal defense. -
@artie-finkelstein said in Plugins and money:
that do not make the source code available and have not for years
Good point. Might be something to consider for sure. Ultimately it would be up to the user of the plugin to pursue their right to gain access to the code if it is deemed to fall under GPL
