[thelist] Open Source Derivatives [OT]

Michal Migurski mike at teczno.com
Wed Oct 27 01:16:30 CDT 2004


> I'm a little confused about open source software derivatives, can you
> use open source software in a product that you charge for?

Depends on the license - there are lots of open source licenses, each of
which addresses this topic differently. The FAQ's at opensource.org (which
also has a list of licenses at http://opensource.org/site_index.php) say:

	How do I make money on software if I can't sell my code?

	You can sell your code. Red Hat does it all the time. What you
	can't do is stop someone else from selling your code as well.

The GPL lets you charge, but requires that any derived works you
distribute be accompanied by the source and be GPL'd itself. The BSD is
more lenient, I think it allows you to do pretty much anything you want.
Apache and PHP each have their own licenses, as well.

So really, the question you should be asking is, what specific
requirements does the license for a given piece software of software place
on redistribution and derivative works?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
michal migurski- contact info and pgp key:
sf/ca            http://mike.teczno.com/contact.html



More information about the thelist mailing list