Please forgive my ignorance on this subject ... 
Lot of us around here like that, so no probs.
Wouldn't it be a simple matter of rewording the license
As you are rightly pointing out, you cannot really separate the licensing issue from the revenue one[/QUOTE]
in such a way that it would limit the use of the solutions only for development purposes and not for resale of the standalone basic package?
The nature of PHP itself, for example, makes this a problem. It is "open". Anyone at all can see the code.
Something along those lines could probably be looked into that would deter the improper use of the solutions by unscrupulous users.
"Improper use" is always difficult to define. It changes as technology and societies change. A lot of people for example, don't care about the difference between the rights a songwriter as opposed to the rights a music publisher. The ethos around the issue is changing, and it is perfectly reasonable for a person to "possess" -- i.e. do what they want -- with their mp3s.
Again, I'm not knowledgeable at all on this legal matter, but thought thinking along this line would be a positive direction on the problem at hand.
A part of the difficulty is the nature of the code. Language belongs to everybody, so an author can't copyright language. But how that lanugage is arranged? That's what makes a book, or a poem. An individual can copyright that. WebAssist have a copyright in their solutions, and they are free to state how they should be used. However, as you are also pointing out, that change in licensing terms affects the value of the product. No sign, yet, of a recognition of this change in value. But then ... there's no obligation to change the prices, either. If people will pay ... ... ... ... For a lot of people, only concerned with their one domain, PowerStore, PowerCMS and so forth probably remain good value, because they couldn't do anything remotely like it themselves. For a Developer ... this is not a trivial issue and I never once said or implied that it was. It's just difficult to see a solution that satisfies a Developer (a massive drop in cost?!?) so that the product is worth while and enables them to compete through using that product. WebAssist may well decide that it is just not worth making the effort or the drop in cost to meet that Developer demand. Maybe they feel that a Developer ought to be able to build their own solution from the ground up. We will just have to see.
Bye now.
