: My current plan is that I will release version 1 free for personal use, but
: charge a one-time fee for a license to sell plans (or kayaks built to
: plans) that were created with the software. What's everyone's thoughts on
: that approach?

: Ross

Free for personal use is very kind. I'm all for it.

However I suggest considering a release as share ware. If a person actually build a boat he likes from it then have the author send in a small amount for the personal use. Being Shareware, if the person does not pay (for what ever reason) , well you were going to give it away for free anyways. Some (and I suspect it would be most) people, prefer to give a payment.

Perhaps you should consider, a policy where if they build a kayak for personal use, and do not which to pay the shareware price, then the persons has the option to give you the kayak plans in the place of payment. Then you could have a library of kayak plans to build for yourself, to sell, or to give to your friends on the KBBS .

I'd also suggest considering a small royalty fee based payment, if builder x make 10 kayaks for resale, or resells the plans, then Ross gets $n per kayak. n would be small, this would be in addition to the (no longer) one time fee, but would help reduce the fee, so that more people can afford the software.

Of course all this is based on the honour system. You may be inclined to have a 'trusted builders' list, which will get the royalty option, and a 'unknown' builders list which gets the higher one time fee.

Personally, the more I think of the "it's free for personal use, but I get rights to use the design" is a brilliant (ok just greedy) idea. I'd be in kayak building heaven for years with all the deign options. Another slant would be that the kayak design should be made free on the web, that may cause grief with some of the folks that do it for a living though.

Please make sure you cover your butt, with the 'if you build a kayak designed from this program, and kill, maim, injure yourself, it's not my fault that you used this tool to design or build a boat for you to do so in'

keep up the great work. I can't wait to see the final, or interm product.

Myrl