a.m. wrote:
Mr. Pavlos Tsulfaidis, the CEO of Smartstore rejected to meet nopCommerce license terms. We'll go legal but such processes could take months (find a good lawyer, prepare all docs, independent expert opinion, etc). That's why for now I would like to share some points of my conversation with Mr.Tsulfaidis and his colleague (Murat Cakir). These guys knew about our license terms in advance (proof) but ignored it. Perhaps nopCommerce community would be interested in some of their arguments (my comments are also below). People, please be aware. SmartStore violates nopCommerce license terms. ....
It is very unpleasant to find out that some greedy and shameless individuals want to make business by trying to circumvent the law. They are trying to find legal loopholes to avoid paying or complying with the requirements and costs (which by the way are minimum) of the resources which they are using for their business purposes.
I fully agree with Andrei's arguments but unfortunately I am not a lawyer to determine whether the actions of these individuals are "legal", but I do know they are unethical and immoral.
As a member of the Nop community (and I am sure most other members share my opinion) I want Andrei's and the rest of the teams efforts focused int he development of this great e-commerce solution. So here are some ideas of actions that we can take to help the Nop Team in this matter:
- Let us have our opinion heard in Smartstore and other public forums such as these in Codeplex. It could include something like "WARNING: Smartstore rejected to meet nopCommerce license terms. Users of Smartstore products migh also be in violation of nopCommerce licence!!" with a link to this forum topic.
- I have lawyer friends here, and in the USA and Germany. In case of needed (Andrei: please PM me if you want it) I would request their informed opinion and guidelines to proceed. In such a case, for strategic reasons, I will not publish their writings unless Andrei considers it important.
UPDATE (4/April/14)
Summary of Events
- The case was taken to court
- Smartstore strategy has been to continue to copy all the new features from nopCommerceto and to postpone the case as much as they can. Read Andrei's comments in this page
- Court held on April 3 with good results for Nop ... Smartstore might soon be gone
UPDATE (17/July/14)
The case is almost over. nopCommerce won the first instance! Please find more info here