Chris,

Thank you for the feedback. Here was my thought process on how things were set up…

‘Private builder’ – individual who builds for his/her own pleasure and not for widespread production or resale.

‘Corporate builder’ – person/company who creates boats/plans for widespread production or resale.

The software was originally intended for ‘private builders’ who would like to get into designing small craft without paying the big bucks for naval architecture software packages. The reasoning behind the ownership constraint was simply to prevent redistribution for profit. If company ‘A’ designs a boat with my software, purchases plans at the ‘private builder’ rate and then puts said plans on its own website for $100 a pop, should I consider that a fair deal?

Retaining ownership of the plans was simply a way to prevent widespread resale. It is not intended to serve as a ‘Gate Keeper’, as you put it, between ‘private builders’ and their designs. If this is how ‘private builders’ are seeing it then perhaps this would be worth another look on my part.

It does say on my site that plans are also available for sale without any restriction and in this case, full ownership can be transferred to the ‘corporate builder’. The price to the ‘corporate builder’ would be higher than the ‘private builder’ price. This option would be for a person/company who intends to build multiple boats or wishes to redistribute the plans for sale.

This is how I decided to set it up simply because the software is free to download. Eventually, I hope to release an unrestricted version of the software for sale. That version would be exactly what you are talking about, full rights to produce as many prints of your plans as you like. You own them and can do what you want with them because you purchase the software.

As far as the liability aspect is concerned, I cannot see how it would be possible for me to guarantee the performance of another persons design. On the website, I stress the fact that a ‘bad’ design can be created with the software. I give an example of one such bad design on the website.

Please understand I am completely open to your suggestions about how I might better serve the kayaking community and would be interested in hearing what you have to say. Kayaking is a passion we share and I truly believe I have something here to offer.

I would also like to correct one thing you said just to make it clear. The plans are provided as a digital copy not a printed copy.

Regards,

Aaron Locke
Washington Wood Craft LLC