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The license is actually pretty restrictive: you can only use this if you own a small company or work for government / non-profit. Most average human's (includi

The license is actually pretty restrictive: you can only use this if you own a small company or work for government / non-profit. Most average human's (including myself) can't use the source code in any way: > You may use the software under this license only if (1) your company has less than 1 million USD (2024) total revenue in the prior tax year, and less than 10 million USD (2024) GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), or (2) you are a non-profit organization or government entity.

noirscape 2y ago
The way it's been phrased, it seems like if you want to use the code to run a small webshop for some goods, you can use it, but if you're actively trying to run a resale platform, that's when you get in trouble. I don't think not being open source is that big of a deal in this situation, they aren't the only player in this space anyway. (Woocommerce to my knowledge still dominates the "small business webshop" market and probably always will for as long as the typical shared webhost webstack is still an AMP stack.)
- rustc 2y ago
  It's risky if you have any chance of ever crossing $1M in company revenue because the license will terminate as soon as you reach that and you'll have to rewrite everything. > The licensor grants you a copyright license for the software to do everything you might do with the software that would otherwise infringe the licensor's copyright, but only as long as you meet all the conditions below. > You may use the software under this license only if (1) your company has less than 1 million USD (2024) total revenue in the prior tax year, and less than 10 million USD (2024) GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), or (2) you are a non-profit organization or government entity.
  - frainfreeze 2y ago
    To be fair, getting a platform for free that can potentially bring you to $1M is a very good deal, I'm quite sure you ll figure out a strategy before you get to $1M, and perhaps even get a good deal on the license from them. However I do think they should've been more upfront about the licensing.
    - tyzoid 2y ago
      1M revenue isn't that high a bar to clear in retail, just takes one popular/meme product. After all the COGS/fixed costs are tallied up, that could leave you with significantly less with which to contemplate custom development or platform changes.
      - 999900000999 2y ago
        I'm sure if you're lucky to get near 1 million in revenue you can reach out and pay for a license.
  - gamblor956 2y ago
    You are not required to rewrite everything if you exceed $1million in annual revenue. You are required to get a commercial license from them, which costs money. That's not the same thing. And quite frankly, if you're making over $1 million in annual revenue you should be able to afford the license fee for the most important part of your company.
    - rustc 2y ago
      There's no guarantee that a commercial license will be available at a reasonable fee, or available at all. You'll have nothing to negotiate with because the alternative is to rewrite or shut down immediately.
      - InsomniacL 2y ago
        Isn't that true of anything? At renewal software provider X might hike license fees for Y to an unreasonable fee, or decide you're not worth the time at all. I assume you can get a commercial license at any point, not only after you reach X revenue too?
        rustc 2y ago
        It's true for proprietary software yes. The title of this post was "Gumroad is open source" (which has now been fixed).
b3lvedere 2y ago
Must be awesome to use this software in a country that does not use the US Dollar as its currency :)
- krzrak 2y ago
  let me tell you about currency exchange rates...
  - snadal 2y ago
    License only mentions USD. So as far as you have no USD revenue, you are fine.
    - b3lvedere 2y ago
      Exactly :) Good luck non-US companies! :)
    - victorbjorklund 2y ago
      The intepretation would be done by a court. Not sure they would agree that the intention was to allow unlimited revenue in other currencies.
    - sieabahlpark 2y ago
      [dead]
- Imustaskforhelp 2y ago
  LMAO. Everybody keep quiet..... Don't let them change their license. And even if they change their license , we need to fork this with this specific license right now!! Going to fork it right now
- gamblor956 2y ago
  That's not how it works, of course. It's your FX-converted revenue, meaning, whatever currency you use converted to USD. The license doesn't bother to state this because they assume basic common sense on the part of the licensee. If that's not enough, they have the backing of several decades of industry practice[1] and several centuries of law. [1] For example, take a look at the Steam and Epic creator agreements, which also use USD for financial thresholds even though their stores operate in dozens of countries and accept dozens of currencies.
Onavo 2y ago
They are probably also trying to get free contributions to the codebase. Gumroad is infamous for underpaying and using cheap labor where possible.
- dgrcode 2y ago
  > Gumroad is infamous for underpaying and using cheap labor where possible. What? Where do you get this from? It's quite the opposite.
reisse 2y ago
> The license is actually pretty restrictive: you can only use this if you own a small company or work for government / non-profit. I wonder if this can be worked around by setting up an OpenAI-style non-profit arm to use Gumroad.

noirscape 2y ago

The way it's been phrased, it seems like if you want to use the code to run a small webshop for some goods, you can use it, but if you're actively trying to run a resale platform, that's when you get in trouble. I don't think not being open source is that big of a deal in this situation, they aren't the only player in this space anyway. (Woocommerce to my knowledge still dominates the "small business webshop" market and probably always will for as long as the typical shared webhost webstack is still an AMP stack.)

rustc 2y ago
It's risky if you have any chance of ever crossing $1M in company revenue because the license will terminate as soon as you reach that and you'll have to rewrite everything. > The licensor grants you a copyright license for the software to do everything you might do with the software that would otherwise infringe the licensor's copyright, but only as long as you meet all the conditions below. > You may use the software under this license only if (1) your company has less than 1 million USD (2024) total revenue in the prior tax year, and less than 10 million USD (2024) GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), or (2) you are a non-profit organization or government entity.
- frainfreeze 2y ago
  To be fair, getting a platform for free that can potentially bring you to $1M is a very good deal, I'm quite sure you ll figure out a strategy before you get to $1M, and perhaps even get a good deal on the license from them. However I do think they should've been more upfront about the licensing.
  - tyzoid 2y ago
    1M revenue isn't that high a bar to clear in retail, just takes one popular/meme product. After all the COGS/fixed costs are tallied up, that could leave you with significantly less with which to contemplate custom development or platform changes.
    - 999900000999 2y ago
      I'm sure if you're lucky to get near 1 million in revenue you can reach out and pay for a license.
- gamblor956 2y ago
  You are not required to rewrite everything if you exceed $1million in annual revenue. You are required to get a commercial license from them, which costs money. That's not the same thing. And quite frankly, if you're making over $1 million in annual revenue you should be able to afford the license fee for the most important part of your company.
  - rustc 2y ago
    There's no guarantee that a commercial license will be available at a reasonable fee, or available at all. You'll have nothing to negotiate with because the alternative is to rewrite or shut down immediately.
    - InsomniacL 2y ago
      Isn't that true of anything? At renewal software provider X might hike license fees for Y to an unreasonable fee, or decide you're not worth the time at all. I assume you can get a commercial license at any point, not only after you reach X revenue too?
      - rustc 2y ago
        It's true for proprietary software yes. The title of this post was "Gumroad is open source" (which has now been fixed).

b3lvedere 2y ago

Must be awesome to use this software in a country that does not use the US Dollar as its currency :)

krzrak 2y ago
let me tell you about currency exchange rates...
- snadal 2y ago
  License only mentions USD. So as far as you have no USD revenue, you are fine.
  - b3lvedere 2y ago
    Exactly :) Good luck non-US companies! :)
  - victorbjorklund 2y ago
    The intepretation would be done by a court. Not sure they would agree that the intention was to allow unlimited revenue in other currencies.
  - sieabahlpark 2y ago
    [dead]
Imustaskforhelp 2y ago
LMAO. Everybody keep quiet..... Don't let them change their license. And even if they change their license , we need to fork this with this specific license right now!! Going to fork it right now
gamblor956 2y ago
That's not how it works, of course. It's your FX-converted revenue, meaning, whatever currency you use converted to USD. The license doesn't bother to state this because they assume basic common sense on the part of the licensee. If that's not enough, they have the backing of several decades of industry practice[1] and several centuries of law. [1] For example, take a look at the Steam and Epic creator agreements, which also use USD for financial thresholds even though their stores operate in dozens of countries and accept dozens of currencies.

Onavo 2y ago

They are probably also trying to get free contributions to the codebase. Gumroad is infamous for underpaying and using cheap labor where possible.

dgrcode 2y ago
> Gumroad is infamous for underpaying and using cheap labor where possible. What? Where do you get this from? It's quite the opposite.

reisse 2y ago

> The license is actually pretty restrictive: you can only use this if you own a small company or work for government / non-profit. I wonder if this can be worked around by setting up an OpenAI-style non-profit arm to use Gumroad.