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Rainmeter for professional use.

General topics related to Rainmeter.
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kyriakos876
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Joined: January 30th, 2017, 2:01 am
Location: Greece

Rainmeter for professional use.

Post by kyriakos876 »

Hello, I wanted to ask if it's allowed to use rainmeter proffesionally. For example, I have a skin that RedBull wants. Can I give it to them for free and then can they use it as a service? I'm asking because I've seen many times Jsmorley's posts about being against things like that, but there's an exeption here. The skin will be given to them for free, and they will use it to display stuff on a secondary screen. No money is involved. It will be more like a free service.

-Thabks in advance.
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jsmorley
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Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Rainmeter for professional use.

Post by jsmorley »

If a company wants to hire you to create a Rainmeter skin for them, you should get paid, and I'm fine with that. I wouldn't be thrilled with them turning around and selling that skin as a product, and of course strongly oppose anyone who tries to sell Rainmeter itself as a product, but I don't have a problem with including Rainmeter as a value-added part of a product. Take that iBUYPOWER SnowBlind computer case for instance. That's actually pretty cool, and I have no problem with it.

https://www.ibuypower.com/Signature/Snowblind

They didn't try to re-brand or hide the fact that they are using Rainmeter, didn't try to sell Rainmeter or the skin(s), and made it clear that Rainmeter is open source, and that you can download or create yourself skins to use on it. They really did this right.
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kyriakos876
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Joined: January 30th, 2017, 2:01 am
Location: Greece

Re: Rainmeter for professional use.

Post by kyriakos876 »

jsmorley wrote:.
.
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They didn't try to re-brand or hide the fact that they are using Rainmeter, didn't try to sell Rainmeter or the skin(s), and made it clear that Rainmeter is open source, and that you can download or create yourself skins to use on it. They really did this right.
So as far as I'm in those limits it should be fine in terms of legal use? Is there anywhere that I can read those terms of use, if any? I searched here but didn't find anything (which would make Rainmeter entirely free for whatever use). I'm planning on approaching it like the example with the case you mentioned, as it looks the right way.
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jsmorley
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Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Rainmeter for professional use.

Post by jsmorley »

Rainmeter is open source, and while few, there are restrictions on what you can do with the source code for Rainmeter. Mostly you agree not to try to make Rainmeter NOT open source. If you want to take the code, change and add to it or improve it in some way, call it HaroldMeter, and give it away or even sell it, that's entirely fine, as long as HaroldMeter is also open source, you credit Rainmeter for the original code, provide access to your source code, and allow further derivatives of it to be freely made.

However, the skins you create with Rainmeter belong to YOU, and you can do anything you want with them.

If you are planning to create skins for profit though, be aware that we won't allow or support them on these forums, as that is not what this Community is about. Any discussion about a skin that is in any way being "sold" is in effect "advertising", and we do not allow advertising for any commercial products on these forums.

The terms of use for the Rainmeter application and source code is a link to the GPU GPL/v2 license in About / Version.

Basically that says:

1) You may use the program as you like.
2) You may modify the code any way you want, and even redistribute it as your own.
3) You may use any part of the code in your own programs.
4) You certainly may sell any program you create using the code.
5) You must give credit to the Rainmeter project if you use the code.
6) You must make any program you create with the code also open source, and provide access to your source code.

Open source means "free" in the sense of "freedom", not in the sense of "price".

You may use, modify, derive from, bundle, and even sell Rainmeter as you see fit. What you can't do is break the chain of "open source", take ownership of Rainmeter or derivatives of Rainmeter, and lock it down in a proprietary way. Open begets open, that is the entire and only point.

There are no terms of use defined by us for skins created with the tool, as those are your intellectual property, and you can do whatever you like with them. Many folks license their skins with a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 license, which has the right tone as far as I'm concerned, but that is entirely up to you.

Basically that says:

1) Use my skins as you like.
2) Modify my skins any way you want, and even redistribute as your own.
3) Use any part of my skin code in your own creations.
4) Give me credit if you use my skin code. (Attribution)
5) Don't "sell" what you create using my skin code.(Non-Commercial)
6) Apply this same license to the things you create using my skin code. (Share Alike)

To be honest, given that every skin ever written is based in some way on what others have done in the past, what authors have learned from the efforts of others in the community, any license on a skin is pretty much unenforceable anyway. It's just locks to keep honest people honest.
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kyriakos876
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Joined: January 30th, 2017, 2:01 am
Location: Greece

Re: Rainmeter for professional use.

Post by kyriakos876 »

jsmorley wrote:Make no mistake, Rainmeter is open source, and while few, there are restrictions on what you can do with the source code for Rainmeter. Mostly you agree not to make Rainmeter NOT open source. The skins you create belong to YOU, and you can do anything you want with them. If you are planning to create skins for profit though, be aware that we won't allow or support them on these forums, as that is not what this Community is about.
No profit is going to be made on selling or using, either Rainmeter or some skin(s), except for the profit of comfort that the skin(s) is going to provide (if you can call that profit).

Thanks for the information! As always very helpful.