DotNetNuke has one great feature – the ability to host many portals on one database and code line (a single DNN Installation). This means that you can have many completely non-related parent and child portals with very little overhead and server admin.
In most other industries, software and components are sold with volume licenses, or per seat, developer or server. This concept has not really taken off in the commercial DotNetNuke module world, although curiously I have seen many skins that come with a “Single Portal” restriction. Most modules are sold with very laid-back licenses and few restrictions, although recently I have seen “Single Server” licenses (i.e. one DNN Installation) and a few other variants. I do, however, think that the Portal License is the best way forward and the most fair…
In the past, the License Agreement on Smart-Thinker was very vague and relaxed – basically you could use the modules(s) on as many portals and DNN installations as you wanted. While this was great for the customer/subscriber, it was a little unrealistic and unsustainable for us in the long run. Consider this example: There are a couple of portal resellers who buy all the Smart-Thinker modules for $30 (as part of the old Silver Subscription deal). They then add this to a list of modules available to all parent and child portals on their site, and then sell these portals to other people. The value in the portal is directly influenced by the quality/quantity of the modules available to these portal owners, and yet the Host Portal Reseller paid $30 for it. Each person who he resells a portal to is a potential Smart-Thinker customer who might have wanted the modules, but gets it for free as part of the portal from the owner (all to do with the fact that it is on one DNN installation and built into the core DNN functionality).
Please note – this is not the Portal Resellers fault and they are acting correctly under the terms of the old License. This is why all existing module versions still adhere to the license they were purchased under. It’s only the new versions are affected by the new Portal Licensing.
So – how does the new Licensing work and how does it affect you? Basically we want to ensure that the majority of customers who own a couple of portals are not affected in the slightest and never need to worry about this. The portal limit will affect you if you are a reseller of portals or you operate many portals. We think it is only fair that we are compensated appropriately for the amount of times that a module is used in this scenario.
The new Smart-Thinker modules now ship with a License file (an encrypted .LIC file containing the information related to it’s level). The modules then do a check on the number of portals a module is in use on (Note- this is key – it is NOT the amount of portals you own – it is only the amount of portals you own WHERE the module is used). Another great advantage of this is that we can now ship Trial versions of our modules so that you can try before you buy. Please note that Trial modules are not to be used on live sites but come with a single portal license).
So, for example, if you own 5 DNN installations with 10 parent and child portals (this distinction is irrelevant) on each server, then you own 50 Portals essentially. However, you only plan on using a particular module (the license limit is per module, so each one gets their own limit, even in a package) on 8 of your portals, regardless of the number of DNN installations. This means that you could purchase either the Silver or Gold Product Suite (or a single product license – eg. The Smart-Thinker HomePage 10 Portal License) and it would be well under the allowed portal limit. It’s only if you went above this limit then the module would display a message informing you that you have exceeded the allowed limit, and give you the option to purchase the Enterprise License (100 portals). Higher-volume, custom licensing is available on a case-by-case basis.
To the average person who uses the modules there will be absolutely no change. The Silver and Gold Product Suite (and individual product licenses) come with a 10 portal license – this is sufficient for most users (there is a currently a survey on the Smart-Thinker home page to try and establish how many portals the average user owns to ensure that it suits the majority of users). Please note that this is an iterative process and we are constantly refining it – if we notice that the average user is using more than this limit we will definitely tweak the limit to suit the masses. We are only trying to adjust this so that price is based on usage, which makes sense if you think about it.
So to summarize, the key information:
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Affects new customers only
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Affects new modules versions only (starting with the HomePage module 4.3.1 in July, 2006)
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Old modules fall under the old license and continue to be used as such
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Should not affect the majority of customers for average use (if it does we will tweak the license limits)
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The modules now have built in license checking to display an error message if the license limit is breached
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We ask for your cooperation and support to help us with this please.
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Starting with the HomePage module, we are also introducing Single Product licensing (Gold and Enterprise, with 10 and 100 portal limits respectively). It still is MUCH cheaper to but the complete product suite, but this suits customers on a budget or who only want a single module. As each new version is released (with a trial download), we will add this to the Purchase page.
This is a much fairer system and is a big, necessary step for commercial DNN module development to be sustainable, and in line with other industry software. Please let us know what you think on the Licensing Forum – do you think this IS fair, and do you think the Portal Limits are correct. We are open to ideas…