Thoughts on Charging for Stuff, and OpenDyslexic
I’ve made OpenDyslexic free to use, with no real strings attached other than attribution, and that you can’t sell the font files. Not that I can stop you from doing the latter, but some people may be upset at you if they find out it was really free to begin with.
Anyway, I was remembering articles where developers or others that create value that can be added to other projects complain that they are not getting a cut of sales from products using their work. Sony’s decision to start charging for a cut of sales from some flash games reminded me of this. It’s a somewhat flawed complaint however.
Look at it this way: the complaint is that product is selling @ $100. Why should they be getting all that money? I should have a percentage. Maybe 10%.
What is really happening is that the product selling for $100 may be selling for $100 because you didn’t charge for your work. So, you demand your 10%, and what really happens is that you are now eating into money that wasn’t being pocketed by whoever is using your work: it was being put towards costs, labor, fees, etc. Now the cost of that product goes up, to cover your fees.
So, OpenDyslexic is free to use. Even in commercial products. Just don’t sell the font by itself. I’m not charging licensing fees for each book you publish, each website or app you use it on, or each eyeball that views it on content you use the font on. Aside from being somewhat of a scum bag move (that’s a whole other can of worms though), it would add to the cost of products and services that can use OpenDyslexic, and would just wind up making things more expensive for people.
How do I expect to be compensated for my work then? Other, non-traditional ways. Hopefully I can use this work to get a better paying 9-5 job, or get additional contract work. And the donations have helped a bit too. But, I’m going to try to avoid a monetization model where I have “enforce” my scheme on others, and for the purposes of this font, I do not wish to add additional costs to any products that make use of it.
#OpenDyslexic is free like a free beer, and freedom. Go get it here: http://dyslexicfonts.com
You have a bit of a problem with how you’re characterizing your license and the actual license you’re using. I recommend cleaning it up a bit.
Specifically the problems are:
1. You are saying there are “no real strings attached except for attribution”, that’s not true because your license also prohibits commercial use and requires derivatives to be made copy-left as well.
2. You say “OpenDyslexic is free to use. Even in commercial products.” But the non-commercial part of the license actually forbids use in commercial products, whether or not it involves sale of the font.
I understand you want to make your font available for free and you don’t want it to be abused, but you should be careful about accurately representing the license you’re using.
Thank you for pointing this out. It should have been attribution-only, aside from the required Bitstream license. This should be fixed now.
Thanks for your work on the font. I’m just trying it out, but I think it is great so far.
Thanks for your work, I’m not dyslexic, but all efforts to increase the people quality of life and with no cost is a commendable job.
Hopefully you will be rewarded with great projects!