Can i sell software under gpl

Its built with and comes with an awful lot of gpld software. Can someone take a software under the gpl license, modify it and sell it in download form via the internet as a shareware application with 30 days timeout period. If you want an example of including gpl d software as part of a commercial offering, look at os x. Apple isnt impeding or restricting your use of the gpl d parts. The source code for the arduino environment is covered by the gpl, which requires any modifications to be opensourced. In the technological field, gpl means general public licence.

See this page from the fsf on selling gpl software. You can get to it all, use it all, do anything you want with it. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law. This is seldom something that developers of commercial products wish to do. They couldnt do it, even if those were good things. 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. You can distribute your application using a gpl library. Technically, your software is free, however you could in effect bundle the software with a service that results in you.

Aug 26, 2008 the software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. I cannot restrict them from giving it away or sharing it, but i dont have to honour all requests for the source and my modifications. If i create a closed source application which uses some gpl licensed libraries but dont actually distribute the software, only its output, can i keep the software closed sourced. However, you must provide access to the source code to anyone you distribute it to, whether you rebrand it or not. Or, could someone in the open source community tweak my companys original gpled software and then sell their version to a vendor. I can write my own software and sell it under the gpl license. The gpl can present a real problem for those wishing to commercialize and profit from software.

Id like to know if the following situation is legal. Yes, the gpl license allows users to sell the original as well as the modified software. Unter gpl lizenzierte software darf fur alle zwecke ausgefuhrt werden auch. Can gnu licensed software be used for commercial gain. You may obtain the complete corresponding source code from us for a period of three years after our last shipment of this product, which will be no earlier than 20110801, by. How developers can make money with open source projects. You can freely use, modify, distribute and sell a software licensed under the apache license without worrying about the use of software. The agpl makes straightforward commercial sense we use it. Drm software not drmcrack software written under gpl any drm system released under the gpl or containing gpl software can be circumvented by a program without constituting a. 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. Jun 15, 2012 relationships between the gpl licences and other software are carefully explained in the gpl faq. You can charge nothing, a penny, a dollar, or a billion dollars. Can code licensed under gplcompatible licenses be included in drupal projects.

Qgis is a user friendly open source geographic information system gis licensed under the gnu general public license. The third alternative is to go with the gpl license, which will require your product to meet the gpl2 or gpl3 terms. You can get a commercial license which allows you to do everything with qt with no concerns about opensource. Recently, i have been asked to develop a piece of software. Except for one special situation, the gnu general public license gnu gpl has no requirements about how much you can charge for distributing a copy of free software. Selling exceptions depends fundamentally on using a copyleft license, such as the gnu gpl, for the free software release. For example, the gpl adds to the difficulty a graduate student will have in directly forming a company to. Nov 02, 2016 gpl, or the gnu general public license, is an open source license meant for software. Yes, that is allowed, but you still have to meet all of the requirements of the license. You can sell gpl code but if you want to distribute software containing gpl code, the whole thing must be gpled. In this case you would be redistributing pyqt which you can do. Its built with and comes with an awful lot of gpl d software.

But i want to sell it complete by which i mean as a complete image to be written onto a sd card for raspberry pi. A copy of that license is included in this document on page x. Can i take gpl licensed code, modify it for a larger. Or the contract can assign the to the government agency, which can then release the software under the gnu gpl. The software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. If your software is licensed under the terms of the gpl, it is free. Yes, you can rebrand open source software if it is under the gnu public licenses, which by definition it is. Most would not unless theres more than just software. Specifically, i am talking about a biological data analysis pipeline. On selling exceptions to the gnu gpl free software. Advocates of the gnu general public license gnu gpl like to perpetuate the idea that programs released under it are free as in speech, not free as in beer. If you receive software under an open source license, you can always use that software for commercial purposes, but that doesnt always mean you can place further restrictions on people who receive the software from you.

If my company builds a product under the gpl and contributes the source code to the open source community, could my company then sell that gpled. This means that with my software i will provide a linux distro, and some software. That means that blender can be used commercially by artists, by studios to. The gpl allows you to modify, copy, and distribute software licensed under it, provided you also license the derived work under the gpl, and make available the source code. What i mean is that typically, legally speaking, you the end user of the computer own the hardware of your. The gpl has been written that way to offer some reasonable protection, no guarantee about what a judge will decide at the end though. Of course, free software is licensed, not sold, and there are indeed restrictions placed on the licensee, but those differences are not likely to prevent the application of the implied license doctrine to free. The question is, why would someone buy it, if presumably, they can get it for free. Internally, our software will be using some gpl libraries to generate its output.

You can use only those parts of qt that are under the lgpl and have no concerns about. This means that with my software i will provide a linux distro, and some software packages along with that distro. I can most certainly sell you for money software licensed under the gpl if i make the corresponding sources available with no other obligations on my part. So you can install ubuntu on an assembled pc, and it can t be prohibited to sell it. If i am a downstream isv that has code under the gnu gpl because of upstream incorporation and sell my software to users, only those users i sell my software to may legitimately ask. Apr 17, 2010 if i am a downstream isv that has code under the gnu gpl because of upstream incorporation and sell my software to users, only those users i sell my software to may legitimately ask for a copy of the source. Can i legally build and sell desktops with ubuntu pre. Why the gpl is incompatible with commercial software. These can include offering open source software as a service or charging for api use in addition to selling premium modules or supporting applications as mentioned above. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource. Apr 14, 2008 drm software not drmcrack software written under gpl any drm system released under the gpl or containing gpl software can be circumvented by a program without constituting a dmca violation 5. Dec 30, 2011 if you use the id tech 3 quake 3 engine or the freshly opensourced id tech 4 doom 3 engine to create your game, your game is a derivative work of the engine and you must therefore license it under gpl or buy a commercial license, which costs usd 10,000 but permits the release as proprietary software.

It does not prevent the sale of derivative software or its inclusion in commercial products. At the same time, in and by themselves, licenses cant protect you from certain abuses. Can the us government release improvements to a gpl covered program. Selling free software some views on the ideas of selling exceptions to free software licenses, such as the gnu gpl are also available. Can i sell drupal, or a drupal module, or a drupal theme. As discussed above, users and modifiers of gpld software have at least an. I create a game using software that is published under the gnu license, such as codeblocks, the mingw. I personally dont see why you can t do both as long as you make the source available for the gpl things youre using. The choice of licence comes down to personal preference, and both approaches can have good or bad. Blender is released under the gnu general public license gpl, or free software.

If you have used a gpl component in your software, then your entire software is considered a work based. In general, then, every program that is derived from gpl software exists under the terms of gpl. Can i sell my pyqt4app without having a pyqt license. In seinem aufsatz ausnahmen zur gnu gpl verkaufen geht richard stallman. Can software licensed under gnu general public license v3. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law center. Mar 05, 2001 the gpl allows you to modify, copy, and distribute software licensed under it, provided you also license the derived work under the gpl, and make available the source code. A copyleft license permits embedding in a larger program only if the whole combined.

You only have to give someone access to your sourcecode if they have access to your software. However, note that commercial is not the same as proprietary. The abstract purpose of gpl software is for people to have full ownership of their computers. Some views on the ideas of selling exceptions to free software licenses, such as the gnu gpl are also available many people believe that the spirit of the gnu project is that you. Are gnugpl font free for commercial use 1001 fonts forums. It may be confusing, but free software is referred to as free in terms of freedom and not in terms of price. Many people believe that the spirit of the gnu project is that you should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that you should charge as little as possiblejust enough to cover the cost.

This create a big confusion in the past because when gnu gpl license was used for fonts thats means that if you use the font in any document or artwork and you embed the font on it, your document or. I have some text data that is under the license terms of gpl. However, free here does not essentially mean freewareit can also be a paid software. This question regards the gpl license for open source software. Top 10 apache license questions answered whitesource. This is precisely where youll need a commercial version of an open source product to have the right to sell your commercial software. For example, if you write some software and release it under the gnu general public license a widelyused copyleft license, and then someone else modifies that software and distributes their modified version, the modified version must be licensed under the gnu gpl too including any new code written specifically to go into the modified.

Qgis is an official project of the open source geospatial foundation osgeo. Why you should use a bsd style license for your open source. Under the gpl 3, the foundation argues that all gpl software users will benefit from the novellmicrosoft deal and others like it. Any modifications to the core and libraries must be released under the lgpl. The software that i am refering to is qgis which provides this description. If you arrange to provide patent protection to some of the.

Freie software verkaufen gnuprojekt free software foundation. Further information on the open source idea, the full text of gpl, and explanations can be found at the following addresses. The implication is that gpled software is not necessarily free from cost, and therefore you can in fact license your programs under the gpl and still sell them for money. So you can install ubuntu on an assembled pc, and it cant be prohibited to sell it. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu. With that said, dear techrepublic reader, the short answer to your first question is. Uhhh, would someone care to explain why im being downvoted.

I have used this text data and created a ios product. You can get to it all, use it all, do anything you. Using open source libraries with closed source software. A copyleft license permits embedding in a larger program only if the whole combined program is released under that license. The choice of licence comes down to personal preference, and both approaches can have. Why you should use a bsd style license for your open. Uhhh, would someone care to explain why i m being downvoted. Of course, today youre probably not going to have a lot of luck selling something that your potential customer can just download from elsewhere for free. Frequently answered questions open source initiative. Even the free software foundation cant manage to get it right. Feb 25, 2006 advocates of the gnu general public license gnu gpl like to perpetuate the idea that programs released under it are free as in speech, not free as in beer. Or the contract can assign the to the government agency, which can then release the. If my company builds a product under the gpl and contributes the source code to the open source community, could my company then sell that gpled software to a vendor that might build extensions that are proprietary. Its very common for developers to want to use opensource libraries and frameworks.

I am a software freelancer basically, i own a software company which is just myself, so legally, im the bearer of responsibility. What is the limit of an implied license under the gpl. Selling free software gnu project free software foundation. But the licence itself does not refrain you to sell the software. I think ubuntu is mostly gpl software, so the right to distribute it can t be restricted by license or trademark policy. Can i take gpl licensed code, modify it for a larger project. Since you are selling your software, the only way for them to get access to the sourcecode is to buy a copy. Now as a dealer, you have to inform your customer what you want to sell them. As richard stallman explains it, free software means free as in free speech, not free as in free beer.

Wordpress is released under the gnu general public license or gpl, which means anyone can download, edit, customize, use, and even sell the code as long as they release it under the gpl license. You should be able to resell it if you release the source code for the whole thing under the gpl. For example, if you write some software and release it under the gnu general public license a widelyused copyleft license, and then someone else modifies that software and distributes their modified. Can you make profit with software under the gnu license. You can use only those parts of qt that are under the lgpl and have no concerns about opensource. Whoever you sell it to must be allowed to use, modify and. Our thanks to the software freedom law center for their assistance in preparing this information. Gpl software allows you to redistribute something as long as you provide it under the same license. If software is licenced under a gpl license, can it be used without restriction in a corporatecommercial environment. One of the main idea behind the gpl is that the user must be able to modify or audit software. Explaining and understanding the gnu general public license. 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.

Can gnu licensed software be used for commercial gain without. Relationships between the gpl licences and other software are carefully explained in the gpl faq. I am a software freelancer basically, i own a software company which is just myself, so legally, i m the bearer of responsibility. Can someone take a software under the gpl license, modify it and sell it in download form via the internet as a shareware. However, you must provide access to the source code to anyone you distribute it.