First Look: Insteon's Easier Home Automation

[markthomas]

I don't think the Insteon SDK requirements are as bad as some first feared.

Will I be able to sell the product(s) I develop with the developer's kit?
Yes, you will be able to sell your software product(s) developed from the INSTEON developers kit. Prior to offering for sale, you must submit the product to Smarthome for INSTEON compatibility testing and INSTEON certification. This is a free service that Smarthome provides to insure the software complies with proper INSTEON protocols. Once you are at a stage where the product can be tested contact Bob.

from http://www.insteon.net/faq.html

Wayne, the FAQ is one thing, the actual license is another. A few people who have had lawyers look at the license say that SmartHome basically reserves the right to deny you a license for any product or application, based on criteria not defined in the license (read: their whim).

This may not have been their intention. Hopefully they've updated their license based on their initial feedback.

 

[WayneW]

Wayne, the FAQ is one thing, the actual license is another. A few people who have had lawyers look at the license say that SmartHome basically reserves the right to deny you a license for any product or application, based on criteria not defined in the license (read: their whim).

I am not a lawyer or a developer, so I will not comment on the actual license. But I hope (for the common good) that any developer(s) that seriously wanted to develop a product to use Insteon and had objections to the license would contact SmartHome for clarification and/or resolution. And if SmartHome didn't respond with something satisfactory, I would hope the developer(s) would go public and warn others (both developers and users). As a user, I do NOT want to hear that developers are afraid to touch an economical SDK for legal reasons.