@Jeffro

That’s just it, Services. Once you go the service route, then everything else regarding GPL or code becomes a moot point. As a service, it probably opens up more doors and if you set things up correctly, could make you platform agnostic so you’re not locked into WordPress.

I know if I attended Pressnomics this past weekend, I would have a better understanding of all of this but you have an open invitation to publish an article on WPTavern.com that starts the serious discussion on alternative business models. What better stage and feedback mechanism than this site :)

No way! I want you to publish an article on it. :)

Really though, I'm no business genius. There are far better people than me who could write on the subject. I just know there's a lot more opportunities out there that no one really talks about in most WP circles. Maybe not today, but at some point in the future, selling themes/plugins will probably not be the first route one would want to take a as a dev/designer because that market will be saturated. That's unless you have the next big idea, and I don't see that in the theme space. The plugin arena is wide open though.

When I said "services," that probably wasn't the best term. I probably should've just said they're selling "things" and kept it a little more vague because I wasn't really looking at getting into a discussion on products vs. services. There'll always be a product market, but as a producer, you don't necessarily have to go along with the status quo. That's the message I was really trying to get across.

The point is that what we really need to focus on is building really cool stuff and finding creative ways to sell it while respecting the license.