RChain Collaborative Learning (RCL) project uses a compensated open source and revenue sharing business model called RHours. https://github.com/RHours/RHours This project contains the records of accepted contributions to the RCL project and the compensation paid for those contributions.
Contributing to the RCL project is just like any other GitHub project with the additional capability of sharing in the revenue that RCL receives for licensing its learning material. Contributions are priced at the time that they are accepted into the RCL project (i.e. pull request) along with an interest rate and maximum compensation amount. The terms of this agreement are worked out between the contributor and the project leadership. To see a list of current contributions, see: Contributions.
The identifier being used for contributors is the public GitHub handle of the contributor. This identifier is associated with contributions which have a price, interest rate, maximum compensation, and an amount of compensation received to date. The use of this identifier has been chosen to integrate with the RChain Bounty system which uses the same identifier. Receiving payment for contributions from the RChain Bounty system is an expected source of income to the RCL project.
When contributing creative work, contributors may only contribute their own work. The contribution must also be free of any other claims to intellectual property rights. If a contributor is under an employment contract in which the employer claims ownership of any intellectual property created by the employee, then the contributor must obtain a signed release of ownership from the employer. It is the responsibility of the contributor to ensure that their contributions are theirs to offer.
External compensation is compensation for creative works which has been paid outside of RCL. The compensated open source model considers compensation from any source, not compensation that is specific to a single project. Once a creative work has been compensated, from any source, it must be made available free of charge to any other project. Examples of external compensation are compensation from an employer, or an external bounty program such as the RChain Bounty Program.
The RCL training content is free for non-compensated, non-facilitated, personal educational purposes. Any other use must obtain a license from RCL Leadership.
Revenue is distributed to contributors on a prorated basis and are strictly defined within a revenue smart contract. The source code of the revenue contract is the final and authoritative source of the revenue sharing agreement. The policies which guide the development and revisions of the revenue contract are determined by the governance practices of the RCL project.
As in all RHours projects, usage fees are no longer required for fully compensated contributions. Contributions are packaged into a unit by the governance of RCL. Once all the contributions of a given unit are fully compensated, then the unit must and will be offered with no licensing fee. An example of a contribution unit might be a particular version of a particular course's learning materials. The RCL project governance has authority to define the contribution units.
The RChain co-op (https://rchain.coop) operates a bounty program which pays for work which accrues towards the value of the RChain system. The creation of learning resources focused on the RChain system is a work activity which the RChain bounty program accepts for payment. In a normal RHours project, compensation contracts are transferrable and can be purchased at terms agreed by the contract holder and purchaser. Revenue received after the sale of a revenue contract will be disbursed to the new contract holder. However, the RChain co-op is not administratively prepared to receive payments from revenue for RCL training material licenses. Until, (if ever), RChain is prepared to receive revenue from RCL licensing fees, the contributions purchased through the RChain bounty program will be for compensation purposes only, no revenue will be expected by the RChain co-op and fully compensated contribution units will no longer require licensing fees, as any other fully compensated contributions would.