I’m a MovableType user. Version 2.661 powers this site. The software is great, powerful, and has worked well for quite a while. I, like most of the world, have been waiting patiently for version 3.0 to be released. I was part of the beta team, though I didn’t have time to test it like I wanted (nor did I feel comfortable testing it on this site because of all the trouble people were having installing the beta). The beta process as a whole wasn’t handled too well, either, with numerous bugs, poor communication, and other problems.
Then came a simple announcement that nobody in the community expected. Version 3.0 will, for the most part, be a paid product. Yes, there is a free version, but it limits a great deal of people’s usage of things. And the pricing structure and licensing of things made a bunch of folks angry, though SixApart answered and addressed most of the questions in a follow-up post.
MovableType is great software, there is no doubt about that. And, I agree with Ken (partially) that MT should cost money. My gripe is two-fold:
- The lack of communication from SixApart. There was no rumors, no hints, no nothing that this was coming. Beta testers and long-time users were completely thrown for a loop with this.
- Better care of the community by SixApart. There are hundreds of developers out there writing wonderful plug-ins for MT, many that have been folded in as native code to the distribution. And there were probably thousands that donated to the project as well. In my opinion, a personal license should have been giving free to all donators of $20 or more, period — not a discount, but a full personal-edition license. Folks like use have kept this project going because of our donations, and I feel like we’re now asked to pay more for a project that we’re responsible for keeping alive. This is what the folks at Trillian did, and I think it would’ve been appropriate here.
But, again, they have that right. Why? MT is not free software. It never has been. It’s distributed for free, and came with source code, but it wasn’t free. The project survived and thrived in the blogging community because Movable Type was free enough. It wasn’t GPL or anything like that, so Six Apart had every right to do what they did. I guess it just pisses me off how they’ve alienated their loyal users.
Obviously, this has sparked quite the debate in blogging circles. Everybody was debating the issue all over the frickin’ web, and a bunch of people leaving, many of them moving to WordPress using some of the ideas at these sites (though there are some problems with MT 3.0’s export routine), or they’re trying out Expression Engine.
Here’s my conundrum: I’m running ads on this site — they’re small, they’re at the bottom of pages, and they’re non-intrusive. I’m in violation of MovableType’s licenses because of those ads. I put them up so I could pay the hosting bill for this site, and it’s done that and to work on knocking down some of my medical bills. So I’m already screwed in that regard, because I don’t have the $195 to buy a commercial license. Heck, even if I got rid of the ads, I’d still be in violation because I occasionally link to Amazon using my affiliate tags — and I’ve probably made a whopping 12 cents on that.
Secondly, Perl is not my specialty. If I could call any language my specialty, it would be PHP (and I’m not a super-whiz at that, but at least I know what I’m doing). I’d rather be using a PHP-powered system.
Lastly, I don’t like being limited by the license of a product, and that’s what I am right now. A “free” product should be free to do whatever you want — commercial, personal, or otherwise. Thank goodness for the GPL.
So far, WordPress meets all those criteria.
SixApart distributes a free version of MT, but it truly isn’t free. Don’t be surprised to see this site move to another system at some point. I’m probably going to upgrading to MT 3.0’s Free edition in the meantime until I find something that will work out dandy for me.
On a side note, I’m sure this entry will take a while to upload as it tries to ping all the sites I’ve linked to.
Comments
I’m fairly certain ads don’t create a violation of their licensing.
I’d recommend either WordPress or Serendipity. I’m half-considering offering to set you up on my own little homebrewed system, but it’s not really a production system (ie, it’s tuned to my own quirks), and I’m afraid you’d be a support nightmare 😉
I vaguely remember seeing Mena say during the last licensing fracas that a personal blog with Google ads isn’t a commercial blog, but I don’t remember where. Now would be a wonderful time for her to clarify that again, where we can find it.
But what I want to know is why Brad gets to be “frickin'”, and I have to settle for just “the”?
Jst wanted to point out that I migrated to WP before the new licensing was announced. As I wrote in my post, I did not like the MT discourse (or the lack of it). A blogging software is supposed to have an upbeat, positive user/developer dynamic. MT had that in the beginning, and many people still hold on to the product out of loyalty. As a part-time medievalist I happen to know quite a lot about the concept of loyalty; it is supposed to go both ways. MT broke loyalty with its community by not communicating, by not improving while promising to improve, and later by surprising the community with the licenses.
Frankly, it’s an ugly situation.
According to the personal use license:
“Affiliate or associate fees that are earned by a personal blog site and are payable to a single individual and that are earned through activities incidental to the main purpose of the site are permitted under the Non-Commercial Purposes of this Agreement.”
So the Amazon links would not get you into trouble. As for the Google ads, I don’t know.
You’ve got a great site here. If you asked for donations to pay for your MT license, you’d get a few bucks from me.
I have a personal email from Ben Trott from last Thursday stating flat-out that Google ads do not require a commercial license under MT 2.6 or 3.0. I agree they should make this clearer in public.
b!x: Yes, at least with 2.661, the licensing is written so I could get in trouble, but it’s also so vaguely written that I could probably defend myself.
Jon: I’d be a support nightmare for you, I already know that, and the last thing I need is to piss off a fellow Bend blogging buddy because I can’t figure out his system 🙂
Phil: Yes, clarification from SA would be nice on the Google ads. And as for which word was linked to which blogger, I was just grabbing links a copy/pasting them — no preference was given to people I may or may not like better 🙂
Renee: My thoughts exactly. There used to be a strong community around MT, and that community is long gone.
Neil: I would assume I’d be fine on the Amazon links considering there’s an Amazon plugin for MT. But clarification needs to be made.
Jack: The Donate Link has always been there, and I’ve asked for donations before, but have gotten little response. The few donations I have received have gone straight to medical bills and to pay the hosting bill. If somebody were to give me a donation for commercial license, I’d probably follow Mark’s lead and donate it to a non-commercial product to encourage development, like I did with MovableType.
Mark: Yes, that does need to be documented better. I’ve buried my ads because I’ve afraid of SA’s wrath based on how they’ve treated the community lately (especially considering they’re a corporation now that actually has some money to throw at lawyers).
Thanks again for all your comments, everybody!
Don’t sweat the Google Ads. I’ve studied the licenses intently as well as the public statements made by Six Apart and I’m sure you have nothing to fear from them over the Google Ads or the Amazon afilliate links.
In fact, there’s nothing here I can see that would put your blog into the commercial license category. A personal license would be fine, though that can still get quite expensive.
I managed to snag a free license to ExpressionEngine and I must say I’m damned impressed with it. I’m also playing around with WordPress to see what kind of damage I can do with that one. The only thing I’ve decided for certain is that I’m leaving MT behind. Depending on how my testing of WP goes it’s looking like I may use WP for some of the blogs run by family members and either EE or Drupal for my personal blog, Stupid Evil Bastard. Unless WP turns out to be a total PITA, then I’ll use EE for more of them. Hard to say right now. I’m off to do more testing.
Les: I’m waiting intently to hear about your testing, because I know you hammer your site and its software hard, and if it’s good for your, it’s good for me 🙂
SMARTY, SMARTY, why don’t you use SMARTY jake?
Good post tho. I am comfortable paying thier fee. Though it would be nice if donators would be given a personal license, I agree with that point!
I also wish they had a provision for sites like Blogcritics.org, of which I am a member. That site has over 400 members, and could use the anti-spam features of MT3 (which are better integrated then MT-Blacklist). But as 400+ users is a bit of a $$$$ thats just not gonna happen.
Jumping Ship
I’m following the Movable Type debate with interest and discomfort. I lurv the challenge in moving on to new coded fields but something about this don’t feel right. Am I being naive? It’s worth reading what The Others are…