Michael Martin of Pro Blog Design seems like a swell chap, but his recent post on applying the GPL to premium WordPress themes exemplifies the kind of erroneous thinking I frequently find in the creative community. In trying to apply scarcity rules to infinite goods, he misses out on an opportunity to utilize, rather than fight, information sharing.
Michael’s post makes use of two popular arguments: Somebody can buy a theme and give it to somebody else for free, and third parties can bundle a bunch of other themes together and sell those.
The first:
…you can do anything you want with your theme, so long as you don’t sell it on or give it to someone else.
Michael Martin, Pro Blog Design
This is an example of someone attempting to apply the rules of scarce physical goods to an infinite digital good. Obviously, it’s very easy for somebody to resell a theme or give it away; people do this with physical stuff all the time. The difference in this case is that after the selling and giving is done, Person A still has his own copy. Conceivably, he could buy a theme from Michael once and share it with the whole world, perhaps even suckering a few bucks out of folks in the process.
Pragmatically speaking, it doesn’t matter if you license under the GPL, Creative Commons, or copyright, people are going to share it with each other. It’s not dishonest, it’s not “wrong,” it’s just natural.The lesson here is that if one purchase is enough for everyone (always the case with infinite goods), you’re selling the wrong thing. Instead of trying to force people to pay for an infinite good, you need to sell them something scarce.
I hinted at one golden opportunity to sell a scarce item in the previous two paragraphs. If one sale is enough for everybody, that first sale is a key scarcity. Sure, people could take Michael’s previous themes and hack them into something different, but the whole reason people pay for WordPress themes is because they don’t want to have to do that.
One way of making this work would be to release a theme or two for free to demonstrate how powerful and easy to use they were, and set a reasonable price I wanted to be paid for each subsequent one. People who were interested in using it could contribute, Kickstarter-style, until that amount was met, after which they would all get the theme and it would be released online.
The contributors would be the first adopters of the new theme, putting them ahead of the inevitable clones that would appear later. They might also get other bonuses, like the opportunity to suggest features or beta-test the theme while it is in development, or free or discounted support afterward.
This leads nicely to the second point:
I’ve seen a load of sites pop up selling bundles of themes…There are a dozen places now that you can *legally* get every single theme they have, for less than $20.
Michael Martin, Pro Blog Design
My response to this is always “So what?” From the customer’s perspective, it’s actually a pretty good deal. Sure they could probably find most of those themes online somewhere (certainly if they’re popular), but for $20 somebody else has done all the collecting for you. That being said, a theme developer can hamstring these businesses by releasing their own themes on their site free of charge. Why pay when you can get it straight from the source for free?
There’s also a second key scarcity that nobody but the original developer can offer, support. He has unique insight into how the theme is designed to operate, and depending on how much assistance a customer wants or needs, stands to reap significant financial benefits from his expertise.
When people get caught up trying to treat copyable digital goods like scarce physical items, they tend to forget that what’s really worth paying for can only be offered by them: The creation of new things, and support for the old ones. Working on a business model that effectively uses these two scarcities will go a lot further than hoping people won’t trade your files or bemoaning the fact that the GPL doesn’t allow you to claim copyright-style privileges.
Ironically, premium themers develop for a platform that has taken off largely because of its openness. It’s more than a little bit irksome that people are all too willing to take something they’ve been given both gratis and libre, and turn around and attempt to shackle it with anachronistic restrictions.
12 responses to “Missing the Point of the GPL”
Hi Michael,
Thanks for taking the time to write such a well thought out response. There is definitely some good room for debate here.
What you’ve said is true, that if my themes were GPL, then someone could easily take them and resell them cheaper elsewhere. And I could undercut that by giving them away for free.
The problem then becomes how I make back my investment? Pro Blog Design gives away everything for free, but PliablePress is definitely for-profit. It has to be, otherwise I just couldn’t put in the time and work needed to make the themes we do.
I could arguably charge for support, but that seems very risky (Especially when half the point of my themes is that they’re so simple, you shouldn’t need much support!). At present, the big GPL theme companies are charging for the simple fact that most people don’t realize they can legally get the themes for much less elsewhere.
Over time though, that might start to become much more common knowledge.
And I disagree that only the developer can offer support for their themes. I know offering the support is out of the question for most people selling on these themes, but definitely not everyone.
e.g. I could easily start giving away all of WooThemes and StudioPress etc. tomorrow with each of my themes, and I could happily offer support for them as well. The vast majority of support questions are install issues or wondering how to customize things. I could teach anyone to do either.
I’m not going to do that, but someday someone will. And they’ll be totally right to do it!
I’m not sure of where that would leave me though. And given that these sites are only starting to take off now, it will probably be a few months before we see where it leaves other companies too 🙁
The problem then becomes how I make back my investment? Pro Blog Design gives away everything for free, but PliablePress is definitely for-profit. It has to be, otherwise I just couldn’t put in the time and work needed to make the themes we do.
Absolutely – I don’t think anybody expects you to put out all of your work for free. The key, I think, is making the most of that first sale rather than relying on continuing to sell the same thing after it’s already “in the wild.”
I’m assuming that PliablePress will have more than one theme, so one possibility would be to evaluate how much you believe the next theme would be worth, and let people contribute what they want toward that amount, a la Kickstarter. Say a new theme is $500, 100 customers could pay (on average) $5 each, or 25 customers could average $20 each, and when you get enough money everyone gets the theme – eventually including the internet. The people who contributed would get it first and be ahead of everybody who downloads and uses it later (or any number of other benefits).
Like it or not, people will share the files regardless of the license, so let your customers/fans hire you up front to do the work, while charging for other scarce things like support.
And I disagree that only the developer can offer support for their themes. I know offering the support is out of the question for most people selling on these themes, but definitely not everyone.
I think you’re absolutely right here, but I do believe that your insight into your specific themes is something others cannot copy no matter how skilled. If nothing else, you are in a position to add new features or fix bugs in the official versions. Besides support for your specific themes, there is also your value as a consultant or advice-giver. Many people who see the kinds of themes you make and the reputation you have would be willing to pay for a bit your time giving advice and helping them improve their own sites.
Essentially the key is in giving people “reasons to buy.” The simplest way of doing this is obviously not to give somebody the item until they pay, but in a world of infinitely copyable digital files, this becomes decreasingly workable. Let the files be files, and charge for what is scarce: the new stuff that has yet to be created/released, your own time, and your attention.
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From the perspective of a user (and a newbie developer), I have no problem purchasing themes from WooThemes (I have 7 such in my collection), even knowing that I can get them “free” without too much effort.
There are some additional scarcities that Michael didn’t touch on, 1 big one which is reputation. Since the 3rd party isn’t the original source, I cannot be sure what I’m getting (even if it’s free) hasn’t been modified from what I saw on the 1st party’s site. We’ve seen evidence of that all too often with base64_encode functions in various themes downloaded from 3rd party sites.
I also understand that if no one supported WooThemes (or any theme company for that matter), they wouldn’t exist. There will always be free riders who try to get something for nothing, but I tend to believe that the average person knows that no one can work for free forever. At some point, bills have to be paid. If the developers can’t make the necessary income, they’ll take their creative efforts elsewhere, to the detriment of everyone. I’m happy to support Woo and other companies because I want to see them keep pumping out awesome designs and pushing the envelope on functionality.
Those are all good points John, and I definitely can’t disagree with any of them. But say the 3rd party source was both trustworthy and able to offer you support, would you at least consider them? I’m sure a lot of people would.
Then again, you could well be right. The people who would consider them might well never have considered paying the full amount anyway.
It’s a big risk for a new company like mine though. I’m still not sure about taking it 🙁
I’m sure I would consider them, but then that opens new avenue’s for business opportunities for both the support company and the theme developer. If the support company was truly trustworthy, then maybe the theme developer could strike a deal with the support company. Each time the support company signs up a new client for support of X theme by Y developer, the theme developer gets a cut (almost like an affiliate-type situation).
In such a scenario, that actually frees up time for the developer to focus on bug-fixing and adding new features and coming up with new designs. That’s a win-win for everyone involved.
I’m sure there are other business models that could present themselves, they just haven’t been explored or thought of just yet.
John, you make some excellent points, and I think it’s awesome both you and Michael took the time to comment here.
I think the business model of the 21st century can be summarized by “Connect with fans and give them a reason to buy.” (Okay, I cribbed that bit from yet another Michael, but it’s a great way of putting it). I’d say you’ve already done an excellent job on the connecting angle via the Pro Blog Design site, from here on out it’s just a matter of figuring out what things people will pay for. Certainly, a lot of people will pay for the theme files alone (and probably already have), but it’s a business model that isn’t quite as effective at competing with the free alternatives (which often are the theme itself, on somebody else’s site).
Like John said, people are nearly always if not always willing to spend money under the right circumstances, and “the right circumstances” usually are connected to “scarce.” Sometimes identifying those scarcities takes some serious thought and effort, but we’re creative folks. 😉
Here’s a rough possibility that combines a few ideas (and stuff already on your site):
-One free theme downloadable from the official site. This theme changes every so often so it’s not always guaranteed that a specific design will be available.
-An inexpensive (say, $35) “basic support package” add-on for people who got the free theme (either from your site or elsewhere).
-Other themes ($70 ea.) billed as “full support included.”
-Ultimate pack ($150) that includes the PSDs (no matter how much your themes get shared it’s highly unlikely that people are going to share the .psds too, and even if people do find them elsewhere this is definitely something people would want to get “straight from the source”).
-Ultimate support ($300/2 sessions, additional sessions $125) answering questions or problem-solving for a non-PliablePress site.
-Patron (price varies, $500-750+), payable either in full by one person or in part by some group of people contributing various amounts: support the creation of a new theme design and be the first to have access to it when it’s completed, (depending on amount contributed) access to beta-testing of the theme, opportunity to submit feature requests, personal thank-you from designer.
Of course, it’s always going to be an evolving process. Some things might work well, other things might fall flat. But good communication between yourself and customers/fans will help as you figure out what they want the most, even as you take risks and try new things.
@John – I like what you’ve said about possible opportunities just not have been explored yet. I suppose these are relatively new waters (I know commercial themes starting going GPL quite a while ago, but the competition for them only started up recently)
And I guess the original theme author is always going to hold all the advantages for marketing/selling them.
@SteelWolf – Hmm…. I’m starting to sway a little here. I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said there and it’s all exactly how I run my business anyway (Building trust with people, then building something valuable for them and charging a price they’re willing to pay for it). In short, the only difference by how I want to do things and how you would is the license its under. That’s what’s swaying me.
And it’s also why my original post was titled “I just Dont Care about Licenses”, because as a customer, I really don’t. So when I started running PliablePress, the license was never a big deal because I imagined myself as a customer, and the license just wasn’t that important. Even now, I can’t really see why it would impact a customer’s experience with the themes.
That’s why it’s important to write posts like the one I did on Thursday/Friday though. It’s been great getting all this feedback from the community, and a lot of people are making good points for it (And at the same time, a lot of people aren’t interesting in the license either)
Definitely a lot to think about!
@Michael
The only thing I could add to that is that using something like the GPL explicitly sets up the ecosystem where you can benefit from free. Otherwise it’s the kind of permission-restriction-based setup that I think artists of all kinds would benefit from discarding.
You could well be right there.
All I can say is that it has honestly given me a lot to think about. Might have to write a followup post which talks about your arguments and arguments that other people have made too.
And I think that by now, the new post title will have to be “Caring a Little” at the very least! xD
Haha, excellent. 🙂