[Bf-committers] Add-ons in Blender for commercial services

[Angus Hollands]

Hi,
Just an initial note; I'm using the batched summary, so I apologise if I've
missed something, or am reiterating someone else's opinion.

With regards to these plans, I struggle to identify how a "commercial"
add-on is different from a "community" developed add-on. Unless there are
plans to add an interface that provide some additional functionality to the
commercial developer, I don't think this is the way to go. The reason being
is this; it looks to me as though we're selectively charging developers to
use a subset of an open source project that non commercial developers have
access to. I'm aware that there are scrutinous policies to ensure that we
don't let substandard works into trunk, so in that respect the commercial
add-on is treated no differently.
It reminds me of a recent experience, in which people with employment that
was connoted to be well paid were targeted as part of a fundraiser. If we
are to introduce a fee to support development, that should be enforced upon
all contributors, not just those from commercial origin. How do we
determine when someone is commercial etc; it seems to be to be rather
invasive.
I am fully in support of supporting the development fund; no matter the
cause, financial incentives are effective, but I'm not sure that I would
personally agree with using it in this manner. Indeed, apply points one,
two and three to all developers, but not necessarily number four.

Regards,
Angus Hollands (agoose77)