As a web designer, programmer or script writer when you are hired to do a task you are "work for hire" meaning that the company that has hired you to do the job owns that job and holds copyright to that design, program or script.

Also if a company chooses to use XOOPS for their base web system that is their choice and that IS paying respect to the XOOPS community and developers. The more companies that use the XOOPS system the more the name gets recognized. I think as a whole it is obsurd to think that everything should be general public use just because XOOPS is is a GPL.

With that said, I also do not think any harm would be done if there was a donation of $20 (or whatever is reasonable) to the XOOPS team for every module that was a paid development for private use, seeing that the designer, programmer, script writter is using the core XOOPS system to call the module.

There are many products that we use, buy and consume on a daily basis that was developed for the use or addition with another product. That does not mean that the add-on company should pay the original company for the use of the add-on. Does cereal get paid by the milk company? I got my dog for free, should a leash company provide me with a leash for free to help the cause (really I am more interested in the free dog food, this thing eats too much)

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Paid modules are not open source?

Perhaps it would be more accurate to label it
distributed/released vs private modules

I encourage the release of modules freely - even if someone has paid good money to (get it) develop(ed).

Unless the module IS the product, the competitive advantage does not come from the module, but from how it is used.

If the site is only about discussions, then the cool features in the forum module may be the reason why people discuss there and not elsewhere.

But an awesome forum module does not (automatically) make your support better.
The best article publishing system in the world doesn't make the quality of the writing better.

I'd say it depends on the module and its applicability and importance to the competitive advantages, whether a module should be released or kept private.

Also there is always someone, who know's something you don't

When a module is open source, it can have more then one input

2 heads are better then 1

The worlds together makes it so, the modules are constantly improving and stream lined

This is not so, when it is just private

Good point Mit - Open vs private.

And in most cases private are customised modules that would have little use for ordinary users