[Bf-committers] Blender Addons Policy

[Zack Brown]

Hello Ton,

Businesses are selling forks of blender? It would be interesting to see a
list of those source trees. Is anyone tracking them?

There's a Quora answer on this topic from 2017, but it doesn't seem to
contain anything significant:
https://www.quora.com/What-different-forks-for-Blender-3D-modeling-software-exists

Be well,
Zack



On Tue, Jun 22, 2021 at 11:27 AM Ton Roosendaal via Bf-committers <
bf-committers at blender.org> wrote:

> 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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-- 
Zack Brown