I understand communities such as Invision Free are not partnered with Invision Power Services in any way, but please can you answer me these questions: How are communities offering free IPB's to their members? Can I use a single 2.0 license to offer free forums to my members, or is this illegal?

I also have a copy of IPB 1.3, can I use this to offer free forums to my members, and what is the license agreement with IPB 1.3?

Thanks,
Luke

It isn't official, but I think that :
- You cannot use a single license for multiple forums.
- You cannot offer free forum (all releases) for anybody.
- Look up, you cannot distrib an IPB 1.3(.1)

This confuses me, I thought you could offer it as a service on 1.3 without distributing files. similar to invisionfree etc. When I submitted a ticket - I was told that invisionfree used the old license. Well, correct me if im wrong, but I downloaded 1.3 under the old license and thus, it wouldnt be a violation to do it unless IPS gave invisionfree special permission to be exempt from an imaginary clause in the agreement.

I think IPS should be more open about older versions and licensing and explain things properly

AFAIK you can have that free forum thing with 1.3, but files are not allowed to be downloaded.

For 2.x its a no no

This should indeed be the case However, my ticket responses did not seem valid to me.

That make no sense to me.

I mean, if I have downloaded 1.3 under the "very old license" as well as InvisionFree did, I can provide a service like InvisionFree. That would be logical.

Answer Is YES.You can open a free forum service with ipb 1.3(.1).

No, you can not offer any such service with 1.3.1. IPS added the URL clause that requires each board to have it's own separate URL to prohibit services similar to InvisionFree from using the newer versions.

IPB 1.3 had no such clause.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Please can IPS certify this: I can use my downloaded version of IPB 1.3 to provide users with their own IPB 1.3 forum, but I cannot use my single IPB 2.0 license to do this? Am I correct that I would need to purchase a resellers license to do this with IPB 2.0?

For 1.3.1 & 2.x, you'd need to purchase a license for every board that you hosted.

But I thought I could use IPB 1.3 to offer forum hosting? I am just not allowed to give them FTP access to edit any PHP code?

You can't provide any access to the files, as that would be distributing the code.

I'm still confused. I cannot offer a free hosting service for any versions of IPB, but I could offer the service if I downloaded IPB 1.3 under the very old license agreement, such as InvisionFree, which I believe I have? And then, I couldn't offer any root access to the php files?

Allowing access to the code is distribution, which is illegal under all licenses for IPB. The only way that you could set boards up for members is to restrict access to the code, and that is only valid for version 1.3 and earlier.

Finally, IPB 1.3 was free, so I would not need to purchase any licenses to offer free forum hosting? This way, I can setup a service like InvisionFree?

IPB 1.3 was offered under an unlimited free trial basis, it was not "free".

So can I offer a free IPB 1.3 board to my members?!

its allowed to give ipb 1.3 only if its on ur own server & you do NOT give them the files.

i'm not sure if you know, but the forum used to provide people free forums is a modified version of ipb 1.3.
its using 1 set of forum files, and each account get its own collection of tables stored in the same database, so basicly its a one forum setup for the files, and all different accounts only excist in the database.

I would like staff to clarify this properly. I hope they do

Hello,

InvisionFree is able to offer a free forum to its customers by using one set of source codes, and not allowing it's members access to the source code. This is legal, however, you cannot give each member their own forum with access to the source code. So yes, you can set up a service which allows your members to use 1.3, but you cannot allow them to access the source files or have their own copy. If we can be of any further assistance, or clarify this in any greater detail please do not hesitate to contact us.

Basically, InvisionFree use one IPB 1.3 installation, and add tables for every member to the same database, and give them a redirection url? Or not? lol, would this be the only way to provide such service, or can I use seperate installs for every customer who wishes to have a board?

Ok it's like this:

Versions of IPB up to v1.3.0 (aka v1.3) you can set up a service whereby those using the service could have their own forums -provided that- they can not access the .php files and that they are not given a copy of the .php files.

Versions of IPB from v1.3.1 and later, you can not do it with.

So long as you are the only one who can access and modify the .php files, then with v1.3.0 you can do as you are seemingly wanting to do.

Also, with the reselling, I don't think you would be allowed to host (v1.3.1 or later) in the same manner, because each copy of the forum would have to have it's own license, and each .php file has a special code embedded into it that is for a specific license only. As well, making a sale does not permit you to provide the .php files to the clients. The only place that is allowed to provide .php files is IPS.


As for how they're doing it - I honestly don't know. I could wager a few guesses, one of which includes multiple table prefixes. I would say to talk to InvisionFree for advice on how they do it, however they may be unwilling to share that information if it means having competition. (But who knows, they might be willing to help you get started)

http://www.sebflipper.com/?page=scripts_mfp

this is the easiest way to run multiple 1.3s.