Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

by Rodrigo Castro -
Number of replies: 5

I'm part of a small computer company in Portugal which core business is e-learning and web-aplications. We have several clients with corporate LMS installed like Blackboard and Intralearn... and they are paying high price for having them!! 

We would like to install and adapt moodle to replace their current LMS and lower their montlhy costs by doing so. We could also have a maintenance contract to keep Moodle running and up-to-date. Alas, we can only do this for a fee... do we have to be Moodle Partners to offer this kind of services? If so, is there a cost to pay to become a Partner... and how much is it?

Thank you,

Rodrigo

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In reply to Rodrigo Castro

Re: Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
The short answer is no. Moodle is available under the GPL so you are free to install, adapt, host and sell services based on Moodle. You can even sell the Moodle code or your own modified version of the Moodle code, so long as when you sell it the purchaser receives it under the GPL license with its associated benefits, rights and obligations.

Becoming a Moodle partner brings many benefits which you can read about at
http://moodle.com/partners/benefits/
Not least of which is that when people are looking for consultants they will probably start their search at the moodle site (com and org) and naturally that site
promotes Moodle partners.


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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

by Rodrigo Castro -

Ok... that was what I thought before reading a comment by Martin Dougiamas himself, it posted as follows:

"The trademark on the name "Moodle" only applies when providing general commercial services for Moodle users(such as hosting, consulting, support, customisation, security etc) - basically anything that competes against the Moodle Partners who are paying for that privilege."

Offering the services I mentioned before will be competing with any Moodle Partners in Portugal (there are none at the moment I think...).

Anyway, can you understand my doubt?

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In reply to Rodrigo Castro

Re: Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

by Miles Berry -
I'm not a lawyer, but the key distinction is between the name and the code.
You can provide hosting and consultancy for Moodle, and charge for it under the GPL, without permission from anyone, and call yourself "open e-learning", "Courses R Us", whatever (assuming that these aren't also registered trademarks...), but you can't use the name Moodle to promote this service without permission from Moodle.com, who will base their decision on whether your service competes with the Moodle Partners. I don't know whether the location is actually that important for this decision.

So, in my view, you can replace the LMS you offer to your clients with Moodle, and continue to charge for your service, without becoming a moodle.com partner. What you can't do is use the name Moodle to market this service commercially.

You might like to think about becoming the first Portugese Moodle partner anyhow: if you're going to be making money out of Moodle, it might be worth considering sending at least some of it back home!
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In reply to Miles Berry

Re: Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

by Martín Langhoff -
I tend to agree with Miles on this. If your company is FooElearning, you can confidently say that you offer the Moodle product without being a Moodle Partner, as long as you play by the GPL rules. You can even call it Moodle -- as long as it is really Moodle, of course wink

On the other hand, if you call your company "Moodle Inc" or market a line of services as "SuperMoodle" or "All the Moodle you can Eat" you will be infringing on the trademark.

Reader beware: I m not a lawyer -- just a programmer with formal studies in IP law.
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In reply to Martín Langhoff

Re: Do I HAVE to be a Moodle Partner?

by Rodrigo Castro -

Thank you Miles and Martín for your insight on this subject. I think i'm starting to grasp the distinction. We are currently using moodle in a transnacional project to help portuguese charitable organizations, and we would very much enjoy seeing Moodle installed in some of our clients. We are getting the hands on experience needed to actually become the first portuguese Moodle Partner to help support the ever growing Moodle Project! big grin

Thanks again!

Cheers!

Rodrigo

 

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