08 January 2009, 21:29

What if a corporate training organization wanted to use Mahara just universities use it today? This is a hypothetical question for my grad school project (term still continues).  I come from a corporate training background and think Mahara could fit into corporate education. Would the company have to pay a fee or would this implementation remain in the open source/shareware realm?  I'm curious.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks.

08 January 2009, 22:21

Mahara is open source so corporate use is absolutely fine. I agree that Mahara would be very useful in a corporate training context and I'm interested in its uptake there. Of course, if the company or corporate training organisation were to want customisations, enhancements, integration work then the core team or Mahara Partners are here to assist. Or if the corporation wanted to make a small donation...

08 January 2009, 22:25

Corporates have the same rights and responsibilities under the GNU GPL as anyone else using the code. There is no fee for downloading, using and modifying Mahara to suit your needs, as long you do not violate the terms of the GNU GPL - read the license closely for more details.

However, if said corporate wanted to start advertising Mahara related services (as in: using the word 'Mahara' to advertise a service that is for commercial benefit) or using Mahara logos or other branding to advertise a commercial service, then they would have to become a Mahara Partner before they could do this legally.

I don't think you mean that your corporate would want to sell 'Mahara services' . Just downloading and customising it for their needs is perfectly fine and legal (and of course, encouraged! )

08 January 2009, 23:17

Nigel and Richard, thanks for your help.  I can see a lot of potential for corporate training.  And I mean internal use, not offering consulting services (not unless you deal honorably with you all).  Stay tuned...will share my paper.  Should be good for a few laughs and inordinate teasing.