Announce: License Manager, plugins/applets going commercial

[erland]

A new License Manager plugin and applet is now available for installation.

The plugin/applet will be required for the people using my other applets or plugins, the purpose is that the full functionality in the applets/plugins will slowly start to only be available for paying customers.

I've thought a lot about this and refused to do it for a long time but I've now started to realize that maintaining the plugins/applets and supporting users that use them takes up too much time to justify the effort. Instead of stop the maintenance/support I've decided to try to get some economical compensation from the work.

The principle will work as follows:
- The plugin/applet will generate a unique identity based on your mysqueezebox.com identity.
- Installation of applets/plugins will work as before, you do that through SBS Settings/Plugin.
- After installation, the commercial plugins will show up but they will have limited or no functionality available. To open up the functionality you will need to get a license, this is done through the "License Manager" plugin settings page in SBS Settings or for users without a local SBS go directly with a web browser to license.isaksson.info and register.
- All payments will be handled completely through PayPal
- It will be possible to get a free 30 day evaluation license without paying anything.
- Licensing will be available as a cheap time restricted license or as a more expensive license without any time restriction.
- The plugins/applets will continue to be open source, so you will get the source and are free to change it and re-distribute exactly as before.

Regarding pricing:
The previous open pricing model has as of today (October 21'th) been changed to a model with fixed prices, see the following post for more information:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...727#post664727

It's important to understand that the number of users using my plugins/applets today when they are free are limited, we are not talking about many thousands users, so the pricing will never be anywhere close the $1 prices you see on the iOS/Android app markets.

Currently licensed plugins/applets:
I've decided to start slow until I know the principle works, so at the moment there is only one licensed plugin and that's the just released beta version of SQL Playlist.

The beta version of SQL Playlist is only available in the testing repository so you need to set this up in SBS Settings/Plugins temporary to install it:

http://erlandplugins.googlecode.com/svn/repository/trunk/testing.xml

I'll add more during the next weeks/months when I've seen the outcome of SQL Playlist. The reason I started with SQL Playlist is because it has relatively few users, the more common plugins will be switched to commercial mode a bit later.

Edit:
The above is no longer needed for the following plugins/applets which now are available in the standard repository in versions that require a license:
- Album Flow
- Custom Browse
- Custom Clock/Custom Clock Helper
- Custom Scan
- Custom Skip
- Dynamic Playlist
- Multi Library
- Screen Switcher
- SQL Playlist
- Title Switcher
- TrackStat

To any previous donators:
I really appreciate your donations, so please send me an e-mail with:
- the 40 character account identity on top of License Manager settings page together
- the PayPal identity you used when previously donating
- The plugins/applets you like a license to

Based on this information I'll give you a free license period based on your previous donation.

To anyone that have spent a lot of time helping me previously with beta testing and feedback:
The same applies to you as previous donators, just send me the above mentioned information and I'll give you a free license period, please mention your Slim Devices forum account name so I know who you are and can verify what kind of beta testing/feedback you have previously provided.

To anyone that wants to help or be prepared for the future
Please install License Manager plugin and/or applet and verify that it successfully shows a 40 character account identity, if this doesn't work for some users I'd like to know so I can fix it before switching more plugins/applets to the commercial mode.

[bonze]

Will this be available through the plugin tab or does it currently have to be installed via your website?

[Philip Meyer]

Is this licensing also applicable for SBS 7.5, or is it 7.6 onwards? At the moment I'm still using 7.5, as I don't consider 7.6 fit for purpose yet.

Will current/future plugin updates work for 7.5 or do the newer versions only support 7.6+.

I hope this works for you, because your plugins and support time are becoming even more crucial with each new release of SBS/LMS that offers less funtionality. When (or if I ever) move to 7.6+, I'd be willing to pay for the plugins again.

Phil

[pippin]

Erland, I believe this is a good move. After all, with the pricing structure of the Squeezebox Universe it's much more important to make sure you get rewarded for your work and have enough time to keep them up to date than whether you have to pay a few bucks for what is actually essential functionality for a lot of us.

[PasTim]

I also believe this is a sensible move for people who invest so much time and effort into improving a product.

However, my ignorance knows few bounds and I am well and truly baffled.

Precisely what License Manager are you referring to, and where is it? It's not on the web interface or control panel that I can find. It isn't in mysqueezebox account (is it?). I've spent ages searching and haven't a clue.

[Chunkywizard]

License Manager is a plug in you can just install via the settings web interface. When it's installed click on its settings link and then click license options against the plug in you are interested in for details on pricing

HTH

CW

[PasTim]

License Manager is a plug in you can just install via the settings web interface. When it's installed click on its settings link and then click license options against the plug in you are interested in for details on pricing

HTH

CW

What is it called? There is no such plugin on the plugin page as far as I can see (including other 3rd party ones). I have looked, more than once, and did a search for 'license'

[erland]

However, my ignorance knows few bounds and I am well and truly baffled.

Precisely what License Manager are you referring to, and where is it? It's not on the web interface or control panel that I can find. It isn't in mysqueezebox account (is it?). I've spent ages searching and haven't a clue.

I had forgotten to update the central plugin/applet repositories so it was only available in my own repository file earlier today, it should now be available in the central repositories so you can install it through "SBS Settings/Plugins" or the applet version for mysqueezebox.com users can be installed in "Settings/Advanced/Applet Installer" in your Touch, Radio, Duet.

[erland]

Is this licensing also applicable for SBS 7.5, or is it 7.6 onwards? At the moment I'm still using 7.5, as I don't consider 7.6 fit for purpose yet.

Will current/future plugin updates work for 7.5 or do the newer versions only support 7.6+.

Current plan is that licensing will apply to 7.4 and later SBS versions.

Current plugin versions should work on 7.4 and later SBS versions, at some time in the future I'll probably drop support for anything earlier than 7.6 but at that time the older plugin versions will still be available and support 7.4 and 7.5 even though bug corrections probably will be focused at the 7.6 version.

[erland]

What is it called? There is no such plugin on the plugin page as far as I can see (including other 3rd party ones). I have looked, more than once, and did a search for 'license'

I just updated the central repositories so it should appear in a while, I'm not sure how long SBS caches the previous plugin/applet list.