May i license my own software under the apache license. The emacs general public license, a february 1988 version, a direct predecessor of the gnu gpl. Contributor means each individual or legal entity that creates, contributes to the creation of, or owns covered software. The only condition is that you cannot release the aggregate under a license that prohibits users from exercising rights that each programs individual license would grant them.
There are multiple variants of the gnu gpl, each with different requirements. You can write commercial software and distribute it under the gpl. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or simply gpl is a widely used free software license, originally written by. What happens if you use agpl software, but deploy it as a different application that your closedsource commercial one. Unter gpl lizenzierte software darf fur alle zwecke ausgefuhrt werden auch kommerzielle. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law. Nov 10, 2005 it is also commonly believed that gpl v2licensed software cannot be bundled with non gpl v2 software in a collection of software, or that if it is, then all the software must be relicensed under the gpl v2. 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. This is a guest post from exygys long time counsel joseph morris. The software that i am refering to is qgis which provides this description. The gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement. See the gnu general public license for more details. It is therefore often thought that gpllicensed software is unsuitable for proprietary projects.
This page is maintained by the free software foundations licensing and compliance lab. The more free software well have in commercial environments, the less hassle well have to fix issues in production. The software freedom law center provides practical advice for developers about including permissively licensed source. Another point about the title of your question can i use gpl software bina ries in co mmercial environment.
Top 10 apache license questions answered whitesource. Handbrake handbrake is an opensource, gpl licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available. I think you can use a license agreement like extjs. We recently had a discussion about whether to recommend mit, apache, or gpl to one of our nonprofit clients for their open source project. The gnu affero general public license version 3 the artistic license version 2. Haufig gestellte fragen zur gnu gplv2 gnuprojekt free. Qgis is an official project of the open source geospatial foundation osgeo. The second version of the license, version 2, was released in 1991. Daher wird haufig angenommen, dass gpllizenzierte software fur. This concerns in particular code under apache license v. The free software foundation considers the apache license, version 2. Software under the gpl may be run for all purposes, including commercial. Gnu public license is all but free and you should never use it.
Richard stallman created the gpl to protect the gnu software from. Secondary license means either the gnu general public license, version 2. 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. They enable commercial adoption of opensource software.
No commercial software, no code that you keep for yourself, no way to. Contributor version means the combination of the contributions of others if any used by a contributor and that particular contributors contribution. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law center. Can i use gpl software in a commercial application software. The gnu general public license v2 gpl v2 for short is the most commonly used open source licence. For the purposes of being included in an apache software foundation product, the following licenses are considered to be similar in terms to the apache license 2.
Can we use a gpl 2 product for the commercial purpose. If software is licenced under a gpl license, can it be used without restriction in a corporate commercial environment. What is the best open source license for commercialization. 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. Frequently asked questions about version 2 of the gnu gpl. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If i bundle a piece of compiled software in this case, ffmpeg which is licensed under gpl 2, with my own commercial software which is not licensed under any form of open source license, does it. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource.
Here is what the institute for legal questions on free and open source software says about gplv2 and gplv3 emphasis added. Software licensing gpl agpl bsd mit apache eula youtube. In reading it, it is clear that usage of the gpl 2. In addition to the permissions in the gnu general public license, the free software foundation gives you unlimited permission to link the compiled version of this file into combinations with other programs, and to distribute those combinations without any restriction coming from the use of this file. You may copy, distribute and modify the software as long as you track changesdates of in source files and keep modifications under gpl. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software to make sure the software is free for all its users. These are great choices for non commercial projects, as they reduce user resistance toward project adoption. Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. Also, the gpl places no restrictions on the purpose you use the software for. If you wish to use the library using the gnu general public license gpl, you may build a web application with wt, and deploy it to. Thalhofer thomas, commercial usability of open source software li. I believe that there will come a time when we will need to rediscover for web 2. You can support our efforts by making a donation to the fsf. Haufig gestellte fragen zur gnu gplv2 free software foundation.
Asf 3rd party license policy apache software foundation. Qgis is a user friendly open source geographic information system gis licensed under the gnu general public license. How should i apply the apache license to my own software. This document attempts to draw together the main features of the gnu general public license v2 into a friendly and comprehensible digest and, in addition, to. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to none unlicense. Most developers default to popular permissive licenses like mit, bsd or apache. So if im developing a library, why should i want to use a gpllike license. Gplv3 of june 29, 2007 contains the basic intent of gplv2 and is an open source license with a strict copyleft what t.
Software is provided without warranty and the software authorlicense owner cannot be held liable for damages. Gnu gplv2 the gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement. Linus torvalds says gpl v3 violates everything that gplv2 stood for. This general public license applies to most of the free software foundations software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. Yes, gplv2 code can be used in the manner you describe. Oct 27, 2016 here is what the institute for legal questions on free and open source software says about gplv2 and gplv3 emphasis added. Why does the gpl permit users to publish their modified versions. This general public license applies to most of the free software foundations software and to. As a result, developers who use or distribute open source applications under the gpl can use the gpl licensed 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. This software is available to download from the publisher site. Since the gpl is a license, the holders of the software are the ones who have the power to enforce the gpl.
Why has mit and apache usage grown so dramatically. The common development and distribution license cddl and gnu public license v. Jun 29, 2007 the gnu general public license does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. Jun 21, 2016 this is a guest post from exygys long time counsel joseph morris. The android open source project aosp uses a few open source initiative approved open source licenses for our software. Section 2 of the gpl v2 states that such mere aggregations are not governed as a whole by the conditions of the licence. 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. It allows people to use extjs under gnu gpl if people are ready to release their code under gpl too but if people want to distribute their code under non gpl license agreements and put up their own license, they must purchase the commercial version of the product. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or gpl is a series of widely used free software.
Weve compiled a list of your top 10 questions about the gpl license in the last. And as of the noncommercial aspect, gpl allows people to sell apps and. Creative commons licenses are several licenses released on december 16, 2002 by creative commons, a u. Aug 26, 2008 in this section, we introduce some best practices for software tool selection, integration and distribution, inspired by and congruent with foss methodologies. Jul 24, 2018 in the absence of distribution, a user is merely using the software, and since the act of running the gpl code is not subject to the license, one does not have to share their modifications to the code.
While the project strives to adhere to the preferred license, there. Software licensed under the gnu general public license is free software, and all software that builds on gpllicensed components is also free and must also be licensed under the gpl. Nov 08, 2015 software licensing gpl agpl bsd mit apache eula kris occhipinti. According to the chart it would appear that the popularity of open source licensing has subsequently shifted to the mit and apache licenses. For example, content that is licensed under the epl 2. Linking abc statically or dynamically with other modules is making a combined work based on abc. The mozilla public license mpl is a free and open source software license developed and maintained by the mozilla foundation. What is the difference between gnu gpl 2 and 3 licenses. See also frequently asked questions about the gnu gpl. If this is what you want to do, use the gnu lesser general public license instead of this license.
Can i use gpl software binaries in commercial environment. Can i use a gplv2 module in my commercial application. Can gpl licenced software be used in corporate environments. The following licenses are in use for r or associated software such as packages. Ffmpeg is licensed under the gnu lesser general public license lgpl version 2. You should have received a copy of the gnu general public license along with this program. If youre merging other software with it, the whole thing has to be under gplv2, so other people. Verwendung gpllizenzierter komponenten in kommerziellen. 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. If you release distribute software containing gpld components such as statically linked libraries, your software must be covered by the gpl. Source code form means the form of the work preferred for making modifications. If you distribute or recommend audacity in any way, please cite our trademark by referring to audacity as audacityr. Approximately 70% of the projects in the software repository sourceforge use the gpl v2.
When distributing derived works, the source code of the work must be made available under the same license. Jul 12, 2007 this is still an unsolved area for both open source and web 2. You can distribute your application using a gpl library commercially, but you must also provide the source code. Choosing the best open source license is one of the most important decisions you can make for a new project. Or, you may accidentally make your software incompatible with the free software definition or the open source definition, or with the other commonlyused free software licenses that mpl 2. Apache 2 software can therefore be included in gplv3 projects, because the gplv3 license accepts our software into gplv3 works. Nov 01, 2017 the long and short of itif you use open source software within your software development project, any permissive license should be fine. The gpl permits you to create and distribute an aggregate, even when the licenses of the other software are nonfree or gplincompatible. Gnu general public license, version 2 spdx short identifier.
Apache 2 software can therefore be included in gplv3 projects, because the gplv3. They either are the holders, or are connected with the holders. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free softwareto make sure the software is free for all its users. We suggest companies establish such practices before building a product based on gpld software. Question on importing a gpled python library in commercial code closed ask question asked 10 years. This license has been deprecated since license list version 2. In granting you this right, the gpl requires that the source code you distribute is itself available under the gpl. Another point about the title of your question can i use gpl software binaries in commercial environment.
I took an svg image from a set which is distributed under gpl 3. It will be closer, perhaps to wesabes open data bill of rights. Spdx license list software package data exchange spdx. The majority of the netbeans ide code is available under a dual license consisting of the common development and distribution license cddl v1. Among other things, were often asking joe about software licensing issues.
Describes the ability to use the software for commercial purposes. It is a weak copyleft license, characterized as a middle ground between permissive free software licenses and the gnu general public license gpl, that seeks to balance the concerns of proprietary and open source developers. Contrary to the beliefs of the free software foundation, industry and open source. If you see a violation of the gpl, you should inform the developers of the gplcovered software involved. Of course, there are many interpretations, but my guess is that this is due to the increased growth in open source in business, and a nervousness around the gpl in the commercial world.
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