who wants to buy OS-Commerce?

[sde]

heh, people are actually selling this software? i hate to send them any traffic, but i'm wondering what the point is? or if they are just trying to take advantage of people who don't know any better.

http://www.phpselect.com/product_inf...roducts_id=110

The Well Known osCommerce PHP Shopping Cart! However This Is NOT The Snapshot Version! This Is The MILESTONE RELEASE!

errr wtf?

Download the Milestone release here for free.
http://www.oscommerce.com/solutions/downloads

i sent them an email asking what advantages i would get from puchasing their software vs. downloding the milestone version from the oscommerce site .. i'll post the response if i get one.

[Admin]

wow, they are retarded.

[sde]

they deleted my post, but after reading through a few other posts.. it seems like it is legal to sell it so long as you provide the source code.

[bdl]

Originally posted by Admin
wow, they are retarded.

They're taking something available for free on the 'net and selling it. I don't necessarily think that's the most moral thing to do, but it's pretty damn clever if you ask me. Strictly speaking, if something is 'open source' and / or GPL'd then you can still sell it, you just have to provide the source code (which in the case of a PHP script, is the product and source rolled into one). Usually, the reason they'd sell it in the first place would be because a) they've made improvements to the software or b) they're basically selling support for it.

sde> you mention that they deleted your post...do they have a forum someplace? I'd like to read some of the posts and their justification in all this. It makes me wonder if some of the scripts aren't just taken straight off of PHP support sites and packaged for sale...wonder if they even notify the author...

[sde]

it doesn't seem these people in peticular have enhanced it at all. they just say it is the 'milestone' release ( which has been available for a long time now )

http://forums.oscommerce.com/index.php?showforum=4

ok, .. pardon me, but now i'm gonna go scower sourceforge for software i can sell.

[joe_bruin]

people have been selling free software since the time when linux and freebsd were distributed in floppy-sized archives (and took too long to download at 2400 baud).

of course, the reputable ones give some money back to the projects.

[idx]

Originally posted by sde
they deleted my post, but after reading through a few other posts.. it seems like it is legal to sell it so long as you provide the source code.

No, there shouldn't be any legal problem, although they should really uh, offer something extra so there's some incentive to buy from them. At various sites people are selling OSC/phpShop on a CD in conjunction with their `e-commerce` hosting package. It still seems lame, but at least there's relevance.

phpselect should really explain why you should buy from them vs download yourself. Otherwise they're just slime that's looking to feed off unsuspecting people.

-r

[sde]

i contacted phpselect and they never responded. it was a nice inquery just asking what benefit is there to purchasing their oscommerce software vs downloading the milestone release free.

[technobard]

Well, at least the price wasn't ridiculous. For $9.95, the only real benefit is avoiding the download time. I can't imagine it's that large of a download, but for those poor saps who don't have broadband... :-)