This is the "sequel" to
this blog which tells the things that happened previously.
Today I had a very depressing talk with
Bård Stranheim the CEO of Gaiaware AS on the phone and I told him about my idea of creating an LGPL licensed Ajax Library while writing a book about it and he basically said that due to a non-compete contract he would sue me if I did that.
Now the thing is that I love Ajax, I love the Open Web and I love to create tools for other developers. So to avoid being a "competitor" I told him I could even sign a contract with him stating that I would never commercialize any Ajax libraries in any ways and that I would license the whole thing purely as Open Source and LGPL which means it would be impossible to ever even in the future sell licenses or anything like that on top of my library. No effect...
He basically said that
"as long as I was of any kind of threat to them he would take legal actions to make sure I would be stopped". I just 5 minutes ago hung up the phone with him so this is fresh in memory.
Now about "competing"
I want to write a free (GNU Free Documentation Licensed) book about creating Ajax Libraries, in fact I have started too. You can read the first two chapters of it
here and
here and in that process also create great tools which I myself can use for my Wiki project and in addition I want to release those tools for others to use, study and learn from without charging money for it in any ways at all. How can that be "competing"? I have no business model what-so-ever on my Ajax efforts, no plans for ever creating one and no financial incentives in it what-so-ever. I even told him I could sign a contract stating that I would "never make money on Ajax libraries" or anything like that.
In fact if anything it should increase people's awareness and confidence in that Ajax is the right tool for the job which again will create a bigger market for Gaiaware. Not to mention that most of my ideas about how an Ajax library SHOULD be would conclude with that Gaia Ajax Widgets is the "right way" to build an Ajax library. Most professional developers which can afford to buy an Ajax library will likely choose Gaia Ajax Widgets or another commercial Ajax Library due to that they then can get guarantees about support, maintenance, bug fixes and so on. Have a company backing the tools is very important for many ISVs. Just because there exists free tools for creating websites (DotNetNuke) doesn't mean people don't purchases stuff like SharePoint and
EPIServer. In fact when I started Gaia Ajax Widgets I did a count of existing Ajax Libraries and I think there were almost 100 just targeting ASP.NET while another 900 or so in general. Not competing with Gaiaware, does that mean I cannot even create patches for existing free Ajax Libraries?
Also I love Ajax and I just want to create a hobby Ajax library project which I hopefully would get others to contribute towards and by that making it even better. How is that competing?
And let's talk about "competing". Gaiaware made most of its money last year on consultancy and training, in addition Gaiaware has an ORM library (which I developed), a Date manipluation library (which I created), a CMS system (which I created), a Scrum tool (which I created), a blogging system (which I created), and so on. Does competing mean that I cannot sell consulting hours, create ORM tools, CMS or publishing systems, Date libraries, sell training...?
Where does it end? Am I forced to starting my carreer all over again doing something else than System Development? Now to be just Bård said that I could do System Development if I wanted, just not Ajax libraries. And he was willing to sign a contract with me stating so (remember this still is fresh in my memory since I just talked with him on the phone) I could just not do Ajax stuff. Neither commercial nor as a hobbyist. And who is Bård Stranheim to decide "which parts" of their business I cannot compete on? In fact since we earned a LOT more money on Consulting and Training last year some would argue that is the "main area of business" for Gaiaware AS...
I still haven't made up my mind what to do, Bård told me I could "think a little bit about it" before he would take legal actions again me (still fresh memory since I just spoke with him on the phone)
Help!!
If someone out there could in some way help me to be able to do what I feel myself I was born to do (Ajax Libraries - I have been developing almost exclusively GUI libraries for almost 10 years now) I would be very happy. My email is
here. If you sympathize with me and have ideas for what I can do to "get out of this" I would appreciate it a lot. If you have some support in ANY ways including financial support for being able to meet him in court or ideas for how to get out of this in some way I would appreciate it a lot.
Now I am basically broke, I'm being threatened from Bård to have all my shares in Gaiaware AS *confiscated* and I am really desperate...