Haufig gestellte fragen zur gnu gplv2 free software foundation. It restricts you from using software to build nongpl software including bsdlicensed free software, but it prevents software from being taken private by commercial developers. I have licensed every piece of software i have ever written under the gpl, i have been an active financial supporter of the free software foundation and software freedom conservancy and the work they do, and i advocate for the usage of the gpl. The software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. You may copy, distribute and modify the software as long as you track changesdates of in source files and keep modifications under gpl.
Also, the gpl places no restrictions on the purpose you use the software for. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files the software, to deal in the software without restriction, including wit. Using the ordinary gpl for a library gives free software developers an advantage over proprietary developers. But if you want to use parts of other gplcovered programs by other authors in your code. Aug 07, 2009 free and open source software is legal for both personal and business use. According to the gpl faq, anyone can make a new license using a modified version of the gpl as long as they use a different name for the license, do not mention gnu, and remove the preamble, though the preamble can be used in a modified license if permission to use it is obtained from the free software foundation fsf. The gnu general public license permits making a modified version and letting the public access it on a server without ever releasing its source code to the public. If i use gpl software in my application, but dont modify or distribute it, do i have to release my application under the gpl. You can even sell open source software however, note that commercial is not the same as proprietary. It does not contain any linking exceptions, and any work using agpl code linked or otherwise, modified or not must also be agpl licensed and distributed. Can you use software under mit licence for commercial use. Aug 26, 2008 early gpl enforcement efforts began soon after the gpl was written by richard stallman in 1989, and consisted of informal community efforts, often in public usenet discussions. Some features, such as support for some external libraries libx264 and libx265 for example and various filters, are covered by the gnu general public license gpl version 2 or later see commercial x264 license exception below. Using separate processes can circumvent the a gpl, but this is murky ground.
If you intend to use the gpld software strictly within. You can distribute your application using a gpl library commercially, but you must also provide the source code. I was fortunate to work for a venture backed startup that had an attorney give us an education on the licensing models at that time, what the restrictions were of each, and how you needed to advertise the components you use in your product where required. Apple isnt impeding or restricting your use of the gpld parts. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or gpl is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software. The agpl makes straightforward commercial sense we use it. I have a concern of using gpl v2 and gpl v3 licensed software in commercial production environment. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to none unlicense.
Free and open source software is legal for both personal and business use. Apr 17, 2010 it restricts you from using software to build non gpl software including bsdlicensed free software, but it prevents software from being taken private by commercial developers. Can i use gpl software binaries in commercial environment. The most widespread such license is the gnu general public license, or gnu gpl for short. Dec 06, 2004 hello sboisvert, lets go through your situation and describe the bounds by which you can cannot use an lgpl library to produce a commercial application. This license explicitly grants rights to users that can be applied to both s and patents, unlike other permissive licenses that are applicable only to s and. Provision 2 effectively prevents the development of proprietary commercial products that incorporate gpl ghostscript without a commercial license. This is a condition of open source software licenses. This article may help i suspect that because lgpl allows making the source code of the library that you linked to available via a download, it must be ok to use an lgpllicensed lib in your app for microsofts marketplace. The holders of the gpl software can choose to enforce the gpl on the distributed or derivative works of the software. All open source software can be used for commercial purpose.
Can gnu licensed software be used for commercial gain without. Sep 03, 2015 the lgpl is a weaker copyleft version of the gpl that allows proprietary software to use or link to lgpled components without having to subject their proprietary files to the lgpli. We, the free software foundation, use the gnu general public license for most of our software. Nobody is ever permitted to take it away, in contrast to trial or educational versions of commercial software that will. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law center. The gpl permits anyone to make a modified version and use it without. If youre distributing unmodified binaries along with a product you ship, then you re required to distribute the source with them, or provide a.
Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu. All that said, i agree that the gpl is often the wrong choice, for the reasons you stated. It is legal but you need to understand the different licensing options out there. The gpl is viral in nature so if you use or extend gpled software then you are required to gpl your derived work.
Anyone may modify gpl ghostscript, but the provisions of 1 apply to modified or derived works as well. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu project. Using the ordinary gpl is not advantageous for every library. Mit and bsd licenses place almost no restrictions on what you can do with the licensed software, other than attribution and inclusion of license. You can get to it all, use it all, do anything you want with it. Top 10 microsoft public license mspl questions answered.
For example, the fsf holds the s on many pieces of the gnu system, such as the gnu compiler collection. Can open source software be used for commercial purposes. Jun 20, 2012 you can license your commercial application under the gplv3 license as long as you comply with the terms of the gplv3 license. You can freely use, modify, distribute and sell a software licensed under the apache license without worrying about the use of software.
Can gnu licensed software be used for commercial gain. Can i use gpl software in a commercial application software. Jul 24, 2018 when the copyleft agpl was first published, many leaders in the open source community had something to say about the issue of a supposed loophole in the gpl open source license that allowed saas companies to integrate gpl open source libraries without sharing their code. Its built with and comes with an awful lot of gpld software.
Gpl software can be used anywhere, without restrictions. I would like to use haproxy as a load balancing solution. Be prepared to license their own program under the gpl usually not a desired or viable option for commercial proprietary software. The licenses were originally written by richard stallman, former head of the free software foundation fsf, for the gnu project, and grant the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software. Frequently answered questions open source initiative. However, most libraries are intended to be reused and the gpl license doesnt make sense. That is why there is the lgpl or lesser gnu public license. This can be further shortened to gpl, when it is understood that the gnu gpl is the one intended. If you receive software under an open source license, you can always use that software for commercial purposes, but.
My comments here are not about the validity or the great value of the gplit is an unquestionably. Can i use the gpl for something other than software. Conditions on distributing ghostscript in a commercial context. Other application software comes with a slightly different license. Open source licenses grant permission for anybody to use, modify, and share licensed software for any purpose, subject to conditions preserving the provenance and openness of the software. Gnu public license is all but free and you should never use it. The gnu affero general public license is designed specifically to ensure that, in such cases, the modified source.
Ffmpeg is licensed under the gnu lesser general public license lgpl version 2. The gpl is viral in nature so if you use or extend gpl ed software then you are required to gpl your derived work. Blenders gnu gpl license guarantees you this freedom. Jun 10, 20 ive used open source in commercial products. A copy of that license is included in this document on page x. The term free software is older, and is reflected in the name of the free software foundation fsf, an organization founded in 1985 to protect and promote free software. Nobody is ever permitted to take it away, in contrast to trial or educational versions of commercial software that will forbid your work in commercial situations. If you have structured your application so that it only works because it accesses gpled piece of software.
Jul 21, 2017 i assume that youre referring to the affero gpl. You may discover, however that these terms do not work so well in your favor, since one of the terms prevents you from a. Does a commercial enterprise need to buy a commercial. If your end application depends on the external process, such that. If you were wondering whether you can use apache licensed code in your commercial applications and what do you need to do in order to comply with the license heres the unofficial simple ans short answer. Verwendung gpllizenzierter komponenten in kommerziellen. If you have any further questions or need further clarification please indicate the lgpl library libraries you intend to use so i can get a more definitive answer for that those. As a result, developers who use or distribute open source applications under the gpl can use the gpllicensed mysql software, and oems, isvs and vars that do not want to combine or distribute the mysql software with their own commercial software under a gpl license can purchase a commercial license. But the wording of both the license and the faq is misleading, and the suggestion that you can gpl your commercial software is disingenuous. Mar 11, 2017 if the concern is about intellectual property and software licensing, then the facts are. I again dont so much care about the ethics bsds just fine as i do about the commercial impact. Can i use images rendered with blender for commercial use. You can license your commercial application under the gplv3 license as long as you comply with the terms of the gplv3 license.
Can i use an lgpllicenced library in my commercial app. There are reasons that can make it better to use the lesser gpl in certain cases. The term open source was coined by christine peterson and adopted in 1998 by the founders of the open source initiative. It additionally makes duallicensing possible, whereby you can either comply with the gpl or pay the developer for commercial use.
I wont modify anything from source code and the architecture of the system requires the use of a load balancer. Does a commercial enterprise need to buy a commercial licence. Not at allthere are many other free software licenses. If the concern is about intellectual property and software licensing, then the facts are. You will find license information on projects website itself. Commercial software was once considered to be proprietary software, but now a number of free and opensource software applications are licensed or sold to end users. Gnu public license is all but free and you should never use. Provision 2 effectively prevents the development of proprietary commercial products that incorporate gpl ghostscript without a commercial license as a part, since these are derived works in the legal sense. Can i use the gplv3 license for my commercial application.
Mar 26, 2015 any software you link to a gpl library must also be opensourced, meaning if you use even a single gpl licensed library to build an otherwise massive proprietary application, you are legally obligated to make the entire software s source code publicly available. Top 10 apache license questions answered whitesource. Commercial software is any software or program that is designed and developed for licensing or sale to end users or that serves a commercial purpose. Jun 29, 2007 by contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a programto make sure it remains free software for all its users. Why the gpl is incompatible with commercial software. The gpl is far, far more authorfriendly than the bsd license is. Is open source software legal to use for my business. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law. Why you shouldnt use the lesser gpl for your next library. Does using the gpl for a program make it gnu software. The gnu affero general public license is designed specifically to ensure that, in such cases, the modified source code becomes available to the community. Any software you link to a gpl library must also be opensourced, meaning if you use even a single gpllicensed library to build an otherwise massive proprietary application, you are legally obligated to make the entire softwares source code publicly available.
Software under the gpl may be run for all purposes, including. Gpl software can also be modified without restrictions, as long as the modified software is kept private. In fact, the fsf maintainers of the gpl have harsh words for licenses that try to restrict use of the software in any way. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource. If you want an example of including gpld software as part of a commercial offering, look at os x.
312 1113 814 158 209 987 594 238 530 653 1305 818 1101 636 529 621 167 812 474 508 369 298 943 1507 320 857 619 554 1186 442 1333 1165 1273 755 624 153