Edugeek Joomla Package - How Much Is It Worth?

[Dos_Box]

Now we know that thousands of you have downloaded and installed the EduGeek Joomla package carefully constructed by Alonebfg and Sysman over many weeks and months, and the feedback we have has been very, very positive, now how would you react if we were to take this open source package and offer to sell it to you. And not cheaply either. In fact we would like to hit you over the head with a rounders bat and rob you blind. Does this sound good? No?
Well don't panic, we don't intend to, in fact I am going to be paying Ozan to develop an app for you all to have for free after BETT, but more on that later.
It seems some companies have 'borrowed' the Joomla package and are selling it as their own. Take a look here:

School Content Management System : Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, College, University.

And here:

NorthantsIT.co.uk - Home


Not nice eh? This is YOUR package. What I would like from you, if you be so kind is to email these people and enquire whether this is indeed the package offered by us, and if they are aware of the potential legal consequences for selling something they have no rights to, especially as it was given away by us for free. I suspect several hundred 'We've caught you' emails will have an effect. In the mean time I'm going to ask some people to contact our friends at The Register and a few other places to see if they would like to run with this as I imagine it could get quite amusing.
Anyway, TO THE OUTRAGE BUS!!!!

[ninjabeaver]

There's an email address for abuse@schoolhosting.co.uk , is that where we send the rude ones?

Thats really disgusting though. What a cheek. I'll fire a couple of e-mails of to them now.

[Dos_Box]

Thankyew

[contink]

Erm... NorthantsICT are a member on here and probably would be horrified to be named in relation to this thread.. Were I providing schools with website designs I'd probably be tempted to use the joomla system developed by folks on here too.. If anything that should be a sign of how good it is, not theft.

So, no offense DB but are you sure that NorthantsICT belong in the same name and shame category, I can see only one school they've enabled using the joomla system and frankly it's there to be used.



That aside I hate to say it but Joomla is open source and can be used in the way that schoolshosting have offered it, and redistributed as well. There's really nothing legally wrong with what they're doing except for one thing.

If they are not including the relevant credits in the source code and/or supplying the source code to the end schools then they're in the wrong.

For all that I think we just make sure that schoolshosting.co.uk gets to appear AFTER this thread so that anyone who finds it through search engine listings realises what a complete rip off they are and just avoids them.

Oh and if you really want to have a seriously long laugh.. consider the fact that most schools like proper spelling, grammar and not the joke that is their text.. Oh and there's absolutely no mention of maintenance for handling things like exploit loophole closures, etc... so definitely not a good offering anyway.

[powdarrmonkey]

NorthantsIT's case study does have Edugeek credit at the end of the pages, in fairness. However, the rights to the template and the rights to the Joomla package itself are seperate entities, so "it's free anyway" doesn't stand up.

Schoolhosting, on the other hand, are passing it off as theirs on the demo site, but have cunningly left the theme selector with "eg_<colour>" names, so it's certainly the EG package. That certainly isn't on!

[witch]

The School Content lot do say that they do not charge for the software, as it is open source, just the installation and what have you - does this let them out?

[powdarrmonkey]

No, they don't. Look at the demo site: they have changed the credit at the bottom to their own name.

[GrumbleDook]

I will have a chat with them later if no contact has yet been made. It is likely to be an oversite or not realising the emphasis on retaining the links to the fantastic work manay members have done on this package.

[localzuk]

From the first link: Credit

The School Content Management System is Built By Edugeek and it's a free (CMS) system that comes complete with 2 custom made templates that has been designed around the chosen add-ons. The main design comes complete with 10 different colour themes for schools.
School CMS Cost £ GBP

We do not charge for the Joomla School Content Management System (CMS) as the code is open sorce. What we do charge for is the Install of the system and any design work you would like us to do.

* Install School CMS £99.99
* Intergrate School Logo from £79.99
* Update School Content from £35.99 per page

Unless they've altered it since this was posted...

[CyberNerd]

so the software is opensource, and published under an opensource license.
Whats to stop someone re-selling it as long as the source is included?

It's a perfectly acceptable business model to re-sell opensource software, redhat do it, oracle, novel and they are worth millions.

No, they don't. Look at the demo site: they have changed the credit at the bottom to their own name.

just like oracle do to redhat.....

[albert]

Dear Dos_Box

from Albert of schoolhosting

If you saw the site school Hosting you will see that it is not selling the program.

The only thing sold there is for it to be installed, which localzuk picked up by reading the site.

Also the credit has been added today and thats it. I will be going though the site this week to see what else we can do.


Alonebfg and Sysman geat work
Al
Joomla Templates | Mambo Templates | Web Design Solutions
Joomla Design | Joomla Extensions | Web Design Solutions | Joomla! CMS Customization
Joomla! 1.5 Beta-2 - The Developers' and Designers' Revolution!

Now we know that thousands of you have downloaded and installed the EduGeek Joomla package carefully constructed by Alonebfg and Sysman over many weeks and months, and the feedback we have has been very, very positive, now how would you react if we were to take this open source package and offer to sell it to you. And not cheaply either. In fact we would like to hit you over the head with a rounders bat and rob you blind. Does this sound good? No?
Well don't panic, we don't intend to, in fact I am going to be paying Ozan to develop an app for you all to have for free after BETT, but more on that later.
It seems some companies have 'borrowed' the Joomla package and are selling it as their own. Take a look here:

School Content Management System : Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, College, University.

And here:

NorthantsIT.co.uk - Home


Not nice eh? This is YOUR package. What I would like from you, if you be so kind is to email these people and enquire whether this is indeed the package offered by us, and if they are aware of the potential legal consequences for selling something they have no rights to, especially as it was given away by us for free. I suspect several hundred 'We've caught you' emails will have an effect. In the mean time I'm going to ask some people to contact our friends at The Register and a few other places to see if they would like to run with this as I imagine it could get quite amusing.
Anyway, TO THE OUTRAGE BUS!!!!

[CyberNerd]

The Joomla software and default templates are copyright 2005-2008 Open Source Matters, Inc. If you want to use, copy, modify or distribute Joomla, you may do so under the terms of the GNU General Public License. If you are unfamiliar with this license, you might want to read the GNU General Public License FAQ.

The GNU General Public License - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

edit: I found the relevant section:

Does the GPL allow me to sell copies of the program for money?

Yes, the GPL allows everyone to do this. The right to sell copies is part of the definition of free software. Except in one special situation, there is no limit on what price you can charge. (The one exception is the required written offer to provide source code that must accompany binary-only release.)

Does the GPL allow me to charge a fee for downloading the program from my site?

Yes. You can charge any fee you wish for distributing a copy of the program. If you distribute binaries by download, you must provide “equivalent access” to download the source—therefore, the fee to download source may not be greater than the fee to download the binary.

[powdarrmonkey]

School Hosting - Home
I don't see no credit.

Are the templates released under GPL? IANAL, but as far as I remember it requires that all credit and copyright notices remain intact.

[contink]

Unless they've altered it since this was posted...

I'm reasonably sure that the stuff you quotes wasn't all there before when this was first brought to everyones attention. So they're obviously members of this forum...

[albert]

Hi contink

I think you are trying to say that the person that posted the 1st post (Dos_Box), went to school hosting and did not see this on the site:

School CMS Cost £ GBP

We do not charge for the Joomla School Content Management System (CMS) as the code is open sorce. What we do charge for is the Install of the system and any design work you would like us to do.

* Install School CMS £99.99
* Intergrate School Logo from £79.99
* Update School Content from £35.99 per page

Well that has always been on the site.
If you would like for me to prove it I will.

Like I said in the post at the top

Also the credit has been added today and thats it. I will be going though the site this week to see what else we can do.

Hope that helps
Al
Joomla Templates | Mambo Templates | Web Design Solutions
Joomla Design | Joomla Extensions | Web Design Solutions | Joomla! CMS Customization
JoomlaCode > Projects > Joomla! > Files > Browse Releases

I'm reasonably sure that the stuff you quotes wasn't all there before when this was first brought to everyones attention. So they're obviously members of this forum...