[LUG] OT: Symbol Resources Dilemma

["Brough, Tom" <Tom.Brough@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Consider a situation where an organisation has researched a symbol set to be
used to assist communication to / from / between people with learning
difficulties. Lets assume that this set of symbols if not universally
recognised, is recognised nationally here in the UK. For the organisation in
question ( a charity )  the main form of income for continued R&D  are
"royalties" from selling the symbol set under copyright.

Here comes the rub: 

The cost of each symbol set is (IMO) excessive. There is little distinction
in cost between a "single user" pack and a 5, 10 , 15 etc, but the initial
cost for a single user is as I said excessive (that is £60+ per a "single
user" set of symbols (approx. 5 sets) ). This is not encouraging for the
parents / teachers / carers of the children and adults for whom the set of
symbols where developed in the first place, and is not encouraging to those
considering development of free software that utilises the symbol database.

So the options are (among others):

1. Persuade the charity in question to open up their symbol set. This is the
preferable solution but considering that the charities main income source is
through selling the symbol set as a resource (and other training products
based on the symbol set) its going to be difficult to persuade them to let
go.

2. Purchase a set of symbols (for development purposes), develop FLOSS but
then tell the end user that they are going to have to purchase their own set
of symbols in order to use it (which goes against the philosophy of GNU ).

3. Purchase a set and then develop an (open) derivative set using the same
concepts. This could be a legal grey area. A legal challenge would do
neither the charity nor the originator of a free version of the symbols any
good, although there may be a few more lawyers going around in flash cars
afterwards.

The irony is that I can see a point in the future where the charity in
question has to fold or at least curtail R&D because the market could not
bear the cost of the product. In this case nobody (least of all the children
and adults with learning difficulties) wins.

It would be nice to see some FLOSS development based around this resource,
but until the status quo changes I can not see how this can be achieved. I
would like to try to persuade the charity to open up the database, but such
a request would have to be very carefully worded and the arguments well
crafted.

Anyone got any ideas / comments to add to this ?

Tom.



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