[Bf-committers] Blender Addons Policy

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi Lechu,

> 1. Does this mean that Blender 3.0 and all the future versions won't include any commercial addons such as Archipack, Blendkit, Bsurfaces, etc?

We only had your add-on and Sketchfab's add-on listed as "addon linking 
to commercial services".

The bottom line for an add-on being distributed by Blender or via 
blender.org is that it should add to Blender's mission - to contribute 
to the user's freedom to have a free/open source creation environment. 
Each add-on will be reviewed equally to be of user benefit and to be GPL 
compatible.

Add-ons linking to commercial webservices or add-ons offering a bridge 
to closed (non GPL) software, are not contributing to our core mission 
and therefore will not be offered on blender.org.

> 2. Will there be any new guidelines to the Community Addons linking directly to the creator's private sites and portfolios? Examples are Oscurant Tools, Amaranth, etc? Or do you need to be signed up for a Diamond Sponsor level just like with the commercial addons?

I am not aware of this. No bundled add-on was allowed to use their 
add-on as advertisement or offer direct linking to websites outside of 
blender.org. The only possible option is a small credit. Documentation 
should be on blender.org. If in the course of the past years these 
guidelines have been slipping away, I will make sure it gets reconfirmed 
and applied.

> 3. Does this mean there won't be Community Addons linking directly to commercial applications like Nuke, Autodesk software, Unreal Engine, etc?
Not on blender.org.

For independent websites (such as BlenderMarket) I will have to find a 
way to help them to more clearly communicate the Free Software 
guidelines for offering addons or bundling Blender with products there.

We have been lax on these practices in the past, flexibility is suitable 
when you work with people and communities. However, reality changes. 
Nowadays we talk to businesses making 100s of thousands of dollars 
selling Blender addons or forks. It's only fair to remind them that the 
fair-play rules for Blender also apply to them.

Regards,

-Ton-

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ton Roosendaal - ton at blender.org - www.blender.org
Chairman Blender Foundation, CEO Blender Institute / Studio
Buikslotermeerplein 161, 1025 ET Amsterdam, the Netherlands


On 18/06/2021 13:14, Lechu Sokolowski via Bf-committers wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was informed that "When it comes to bundling add-ons with Blender, the policy is changing for the upcoming release."
>
> I was asked to ask the following questions here:
> 1. Does this mean that Blender 3.0 and all the future versions won't include any commercial addons such as Archipack, Blendkit, Bsurfaces, etc?
> 2. Will there be any new guidelines to the Community Addons linking directly to the creator's private sites and portfolios? Examples are Oscurant Tools, Amaranth, etc? Or do you need to be signed up for a Diamond Sponsor level just like with the commercial addons?
> 3. Does this mean there won't be Community Addons linking directly to commercial applications like Nuke, Autodesk software, Unreal Engine, etc?
>
> --
> Lech Sokolowski
> chocofur.com
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