25 points by rhodey 3 days ago
Bizcardz.ai is a website where you design business cards which are converted to KiCad PCB schematics which can be manufactured (using metals) by companies such as Elecrow and PCBWay
The site is free. Elecrow charges about $1 per pcb in quantities of 50 and $0.80 in quantities of 100.
I have hacked away at this on and off for about two years so just happy to get it published
"MIT: non-commercial use" [0]
I have no idea what this means.
> MIT: non-commercial use, Proprietary: commercial use, contact for terms: hello@bizcardz.ai
Then, right under it:
> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions ...
What?
[0] https://github.com/rhodey/bizcardz.ai/blob/master/LICENSE
Though you may wish the license was different I find it hard to believe you have no idea what the license allows for
This can be found online as "dual licensing"
I understand your intent here but you're being told that you have not correctly achieved it, and you need to make some small changes to get to where you want to be.
Presently you say this: > This software is available under two licenses: > MIT: non-commercial use > Proprietary: commercial use, contact for terms: hello@bizcardz.ai
What this means:
"You may select from one of two licenses for this software: - the MIT license which has no restrictions of any kind - a proprietary license you must contact me to learn about."
I get you think adding "non-commercial" to that line means you're telling folks the MIT option is only for noncommercial uses, but that's not the end effect. What you are actually saying is that people can choose MIT or not, and they're going to choose MIT. You tried to say it's MIT only for noncommercial, but that language IS NOT IN THE MIT LICENSE and so your statement is unenforcable. We're only trying to help you here.
What I think you're looking for:
You may select from one of two licenses for this software: 1. All use where the code is used in a commercial, revenue generating, or other for-pay or professional use, you must purchase a license. Contact me for details. 2. For non-commercial uses the software is free to use, modify, and redistribute for other non-commercial uses.
Then you want to use a license that agrees with your desires, and MIT is not that license.
Right now anyone can take your code, take it under MIT, and you've got literally nothing to say about it. So just change that license, that's all.
Or don't it's not our code that will be misused.
Never write a legal document yourself. Always talk to a lawyer because these traps are really easy to set.
This is not how dual licensing works. If you offer two licenses I get to pick. And I pick MIT which allows me to use it commercially.
If you disagree, then it's not MIT but some custom license, so don't label it as such.
What the license allows for is very clear
I publish many things without dual licensing and yet your kind will not be satisfied
No. I may have a guess of what the intended license is but what the license says is complete nonsense. It's self contradictory.
If they want to let people use it in non-commercial settings but are willing to provide a license for commercial use, then they could have provided a non-commercial license.
If they wanted to provide a FOSS license, then they should have provided one and offered a dual license option (by the actual commonly accepted usage of that term in this context).
If they want to make an MIT-like license but make it for non-commercial use, then they should just call it a non-commercial license and not confuse the issue by claiming it's MIT.
As it stands, they've provided a FOSS license, that explicitly allows the use, modification, redistribution and resale in commercial settings, but slapped a "non-commercial" term at the top of it.
"Please use this software however you like, including in commercial settings, redistributing it for profit and modifying it for your commercial use. Also, don't use it for commercial use"
What?
Don't mind me over here reselling your software non-commercially
> We need to show dozens of things at once and this won't fit on a phone. Switch to desktop.
Scrollbars can help!
I really like the idea, although the designs are a bit limited and I don't know that I'd use this tool if I did want to make this kind of business card. But looking at the UI, this is all stuff that would be pretty easy to make responsive, and would work fairly well on mobile. It's a bit of a shame to add an arbitrary limitation like this.
It would be nice to see an actual picture of the physical business card here. Also do you handle sending the design to a manufacturer, or do I need to download and send myself?
The FAQ page is linked to from the home page
On the FAQ page there are links to images of the end result / physical
It would still be a lot nicer to see a sample in the repo you linked.
Instead of: Gihub Link => bizcardz => FAQ => "Show me the end result"
What is the end use of this product? I’m a commercial printer. I discourage clients from printing business cards. It’s an archaic form of networking. A paper based card is a waste of resources, both natural, chemical and labor. As a pcb board even more so. Please. If you have a mobile phone ask the person for their number and text them your info. Now you have a meaningful connection.
My first company after college would issue business cards to anyone for free if you filled out a form. It felt amazing. So far the only thing I've ever used them for is spreading thermal paste. I agree with you, the idea of business cards is so much more appealing than the reality.
I also dropped them into those restaurant fishbowls which claimed the winner would get a free soda or something. Hundreds of business cards, no free soda.
Instructions unclear. Will hand out burner phones with my phone number in the contacts in lieu of business cards.
The black and silver and white and silver sample photos look like they may be using HASL surface finish (aka, solder).
If you're handing out business cards with a HASL finish, make sure to spend extra for the lead-free version.