Some Business Ideas For Filter Forge.....

hi steviej,

in all probability, someone down the line is going to write a 'convert FF filter X into an .8bf' program. because of the type of language xml is, it probably wouldnt be that difficult to do. xml is a data writing and defining language. since the data is already there in every filter, some bright person is quite liable to take advantage of this. so, you simply plug the data of the filter into .8bf parameters and voila', intstant plugin.

the real trick, and i would think the FF team might want to look into the legal aspects of this, is, who then owns the license to the plugin? in the u.s. i would think the courts would side with the original license holder, being that the .8bf file is a 'derivative work' of the original filter. this has generally held up for other software companies. but, because of the way the eula reads, i dont know for sure.

but, i am sure i'd check this if i were FF. because i dont think it would work the way you're thinking it would. what would probably happen is that a few folks would buy FF and the majority would buy the plugins. why spend $300 for the filter maker when you can spend $50 and reap all the benefits? that certainly wouldnt be the case every time, but i can certainly see it happening. FF gets nothing and the plugin seller only has to spend $300 and makes all the revenue from the plugin sales. so, not a good deal for FF.

Hi Kraellin and CFandM

Good point if just selling packages for $50.... After reading the filter submission agreement, it seems to me that FF has iron-clad rights to all filters made here....and certainly would not have any problems in court stopping anyone from commercially selling any of them....

I was talking about an elaborate package of filters at a substantial price comparable to something like the KPT packages.....which sell for a substantial price comparable to the FF software price. There are certainly some filter makers on FF that have met and/or surpassed this benchmark in their filtermaking....the Filter Forge "Grand Masters" At that level, I think that it would work quite nicely for both FF and its aspiring filter makers....

Steve

dont get me wrong, steviej, i too originally thought that .8bf's would be the way to go on this. but unless FF made and controlled the sale of those, i dont think it would work well for the FF team. i think they'd lose sales.

if FF did make and control the .8bf's, that might be a different matter. you could sell packs of 10 and so on at a very low rate and make that a sort of sale's pitch to buy the full program. but it's also been demonstrated that ONE filter, all by itself, can do the work of 10 or even 20 existing filters. so, how do you sort all that out when you make the .8bf's?

you'd probably also have to hire an extra person or two to oversee all that. so, the consideration of paying for extra help also enters in here.

and just for myself, i've already got three pages of plugins installed on my graphic program. i really dont want to add 20 or 30 more plugins to this.

a 'Lite' version of the program has also been suggested by myself and others. sell just the library and the engine that drives it, but not the editor. that shld also work as a draw to buy the full program.

i'm also guessing that vladimir and the rest of the FF team have looked at and discussed most of this. i know we've discussed some of it here on the forums. and i'm also fairly sure they'd like to just get the current program wrapped up and realeased

It seems like a simpler, and better, plan, is to simply wait 6-12 months, then introduce a non-editable version of FF for half price. Not everyone is going to want to make/edit filters, but everyone would have an interest in being able to use the entire up-to-date filter library.

jffe

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Vladimir Golovin wrote: wait 6-12 months, then introduce a non-editable version of FF for half price

This strategy can be viable only if we have tons of 'mainstream' filters in the library. Time will tell.