OpenCPN on eBay

[Weeble]

Looks like people are being conned into paying for OpenCPN on eBay .

SIMPLE TURN ANY LAPTOP INTO A MARINE GPS CHART PLOTTER on eBay (end time 04-Jan-11 23:11:11 GMT)

It does not mention on any of the listings that the programme is freely available to download.

[witzgall]

I reported it to eBay, but they may actually be not breaking the rights of the project, as this typicall allows to cahrge a nominal fee for duplication and postage.
Chris

[bdbcat]

Guys....

Thanks for bringing this point up.

Selling FOSS (Open Source) software is entirely legal, and actually encouraged.

Selling Free Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

The word “free” has two legitimate general meanings; it can refer either to freedom or to price.  When we speak of “free software”, we're talking about freedom, not price.  (Think of “free speech”, not “free beer”.)

We may think it unfair, and even silly for someone to pay for something which can be downloaded freely. But that is the way of private enterprise. Entrepreneurs abound, and are extremely creative. And we probably do not want the alternative economic system.

so, lets hear it for Free Speech

Dave

[CarCode]

Wrong, this eBay offer does break law in our country!

I guess it is time to make a warning in the OpenCPN home page.

Gerhard

[simonmd]

May I make a suggestion? Every now and then, Ebay has a 'free listing day'. Whenever this comes around, a few of us put a 1p Ebay add up for Open CPN, containing the the fact that it's FREE, warning people not to pay when they don't have to and publishing the download or O-CPN homepage link.

This way, anyone who innocently searches for marine chart software will see our 'free' ad listed next to the con merchants and they would be put out of business and move onto something else.

[bdbcat]

Carcode....

Tell me more about this situation in Germany. News to me, and I'd like to learn about it. Links?

Dave

[idpnd]

I don't think that's correct, its fine to sell GPLed software in Germany as elsewhere.

I have seen them including cm93 charts on the cd, that's a different story of course..

[teneicm]

They are also selling "support" as part of the price and guarantee to get it up and running on your laptop. For some less technical folks that may be worth the price.

[Viking Sailor]

Why not put together an ad that links to the OpenCPN download and Donation pages. The ad could include info on the software and a suggestion to donate to its development. Also, there may be places other then E-Bay to place such an ad.

[idpnd]

There isnt even a donations button on the homepage right now - considering its drawing reasonable amounts of traffic, this might be worthwhile!

SourceForge.net: OpenCPN: Make A Donation

[READY2GO]

This thread was of great intrest to me as we just started using Open CPN. We had a lot of trouble getting it to work for the first two weeks, but kept playing with it untill we finally got it to work properly. If we could have paid somebody $20 to help us get it going NOW, we would have in a heartbeat. It looks to me what they are selling is service more than the software. Considering how much trouble we had getting it to work, I would say there is a market for them.

[champ8242]

Originally Posted by READY2GO

This thread was of great intrest to me as we just started using Open CPN. We had a lot of trouble getting it to work for the first two weeks, but kept playing with it untill we finally got it to work properly. If we could have paid somebody $20 to help us get it going NOW, we would have in a heartbeat. It looks to me what they are selling is service more than the software. Considering how much trouble we had getting it to work, I would say there is a market for them.

This forum and it's members would have helped you 4 free!!! So it the Software

[simonmd]

I understand your point of view regarding 'technical support' but that really is just a cop out argument for the software pirates. Like Champ just said, THIS FORUM will give you all the technical support you need.

[READY2GO]

As we were searching for help we came across CF threads in our search results. So we searched the forum specifically. Everything we found was way over our heads. Granted I didn't start a thread with our particular problem, we just kept trying until we finally got it. I am not saying these guys are saints, just that they have a marketable plan (if they really do have good service,not just talk).

[hellosailor]

Selling "free" downloadable software that has been bunred to media (CD, etc) is not always wrong. It may often be a rip-off, but for the folks who don't have broadband, the folks who are outback with 14.4 dialup modems because that's all their noisy phone lines can support, there actually IS a purpose in being able to buy DISCS instead of making a download.

If the creator doesn't want to be bothered with onsie-twosie burning discs, collecting the odd dollar and making all the little trips and followups, this can be a win-win situation.

Still..."For the benefit of Mister Kite" and other impaired bidders, it might be worth considering some way to ensure they at least KNOW they can download it for free. There must be some way to make that possible.