I just almost bought Moveable Type 3.0 for jill/txt. Regardless of how long I keep using Moveable Type, I figured I’ve certainly had enough pleasure and use from it that I’m willing to pay $70. The teaching blogs I can figure out later. But this time I read the licence before clicking accept (uh, no, I don’t always, do you?), and you see, I think I’d be in breach of a personal licence, look: “”Non-Commercial Purposes” means use of the Software by an individual for publishing on a personal blog site on a single sever that does not directly or indirectly support any commercial efforts.” Well. Indirectly, you know, some of the talks I’ve given and the essays I’ve been asked to write – for pay – are at least in part due to people having read my blog. So does that mean I need to buy a commercial licence for my personal blog?
I clicked cancel. Maybe later.
Eirik
Very valid point, Jill. Part of what I write in my MT blog is also work-related, and I would think this is the case for a lot of academics and free-lancers. Which is why I’m planning a switch as I write. I was frustrated enough with the sluggishness, the bugs (the logout-on-save bug, especially) and the lack of anti-spam measures (MT-Blacklist doesn’t work for me) _before_ the announcement.
I suspect the Trotts are moving away from the mass market anyway. After all, they’re charging a pretty hefty fee for a product which can be very difficult to install for your average user – for $70 most people would demand “download-and-click” usability. The key sentence, I think, is “full-featured platform for development and customization”. Too bad, for a while it really looked like MT would become the de facto standard for high-powered individual blogging.
Jill
I think the movement away from a mass market is deliberate, and that TypePad is supposed to be the mass market thing.
Reading the commercial licence it’s clear that this weblog would need a commercial licence, due to the indirect earning of money, so it would cost me $199. Also the fact that it’s hosted at my university probably makes it commercial too, even though I’d be paying out of my own pocket. I don’t earn enough money off it to want to pay that.
Ah well. Don’t upgrade or switch platforms are my choices. I wonder whether WordPress gets as badly spammed as Movable Type does?
Mark Bernstein
I’m no fan of “non-commercial” clauses myself, but you’re being much to strict. Almost ANY conceivable use of a weblog tool could, after all, result in economic benefit, just as any public act might result in a commercial benefit.
The intent must be that you need a commercial license if (a) you charge people to read the weblog, or (b) the weblog is part of a commercial effort.
I’m not a lawyer, MT is a competitor of my employer, objects appear smaller in mirror,
Jill
I wonder whether Google ads would count as commercial?
I’d probably never buy anything if I really read the licences. Sigh.
Anonymous
Ummm. MT 3.0 is currently only a developer’s edition release. Not meant for the ordinary user…
HÂkon Styri
Most of all, the release of MT 3.0 appears to be an exercise in bad market communication. That’s sad, because that also indicates that Six Apart also lacks some understanding of their users. Mena’s trying to correct that, but it walks and talks like good old damage control.
Apart from that, I believe Jill’s got the point regarding TypePad. Fiddling with MT installation isn’t for the mass market user. By limiting bandwidth and storage, TypePad can offer a subscription with unlimited number of blogs and authors. I guess Six Apart discovered that hosting blogs can be quite profitable.
(The reason using a hosting service appeals to me is that by hosting a few thousand blogs a bloghost like TypePad can implement really efficient spam control.)
However, I cannot see there’s a big issue here. We need better tools for both enterprise and academic blogs. Six Apart probably created a market opportunity for other entrepreneurs by their MT 3.0 release. I cannot see any reason at all for complaining about that. It’s a “good thing” in my book.
Frank
As the anonymous commenter noticed, the current release is a developer release. Wait for the regular release and see what you think. From what I’ve read, this release is very rough indeed.
As for your site being commercial Jill, that’s overinterpreting the “non-commercial” clause imho. Gizmodo and Gawker are commercial. Being an academic means we’re not in this for the money anyway and I’d like to think that getting invited for a talk or what have you happens primarily on basis of your academic merits, even if the organisers happened to find you through your weblog. It’s not like you’re getting rich from those talkes (yet… 🙂
At least, that’s the way I’m going to read the non-commercial license if I happen to stay with MT in the case that the general release of MT3 manages to blow me away (slight chance I’d recon at this point).
bicyclemark
I might be a little late getting into the discussion… but I’m still not convinced of MT’s superiority to say.. blogger. I don’t see why blogger blogs can’t be every bit as dynamic and high-quality as MT. But I’m willing to listen.
Jill
Blogger can’t do trackbacks. I want trackbacks.
Otherwise, I really like blogger. It’s great. Lets you do lots, and it’s extremely easy. Now there are even built in comments. Cool!
Matt
Looking for bew blogware? Have you seen this comparison: http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm