Hi guys !
I’m going to write a commercial product, (for non open source use), partially encrypted extensions and controllers (written by me), break i copyrights ?
Hi guys !
I’m going to write a commercial product, (for non open source use), partially encrypted extensions and controllers (written by me), break i copyrights ?
My understanding is that Yii uses the BSD License and it is very commercial friendly, but I am not a licence expert.
I’m not a lawyer!!!
Basically if you don’t release the code you don’t have to do anything. When you sell to a customer – inhouse you can create your own license and then just provide yii as is, with the bsd. If you go cloud – you are providing a service so licenses are not really an issue because you ate not really releasing code.
I’ve seen a few projects go with gpl for yii apps but I wonder if that is actually correct. GPL goes one way compared to BSD.
GPL projects your code but then there issues too.
You can legally create commercial software based on software with BSD license.
Of course!
But if im not mistaken, i can buy that bsd software and then sell it ti my customers. Cut the original coder out, too!
I think the important thing is that you retain the original licence on included software. So you have to keep the Yii licence but your extensions or anything that does not come with Yii can have a different licence. So any additional third party libs you might use needs to also retain their licence. Based on what I have read I think GPL3 is the only problem here where if you use a GPL3 lib the code that uses the lib also has to be GPL3 or if requested the code needs to be made available or something like that.
For commercial software that uses or includes open source software I would try to stick to BSD, MIT and Apache licences.
I don’t know how things change if modify the code of BSD licensed code. I think you can then re-licence it as your own as long as you recognise the original authors.
I am no expert so if you are worried I think it would be best to speak to somebody about it. Like an attorney or maybe write to the free software foundation.
I find software licences very confusing, here is some other stuff I found that you might find interesting and related to your issue.
Here is a quote from “Statement on OpenOffice.org’s move to Apache” and to my knowledge the BSD licence is even more permissive.
http://www.fsf.org/news/openoffice-apache-libreoffice
Wikipedia on Copyleft
GPL basicalky ties your hands and insures that the original code and modifcations there after stay gpl.
Accessing libs to entich your own code doesn’t always mean your codeust accept the virual nature of the gpl but this becomes a fine line that lawyers will have the mist knowledge.
GPL can coexist but i forget which it was: bsd > gpl … Is probably correct while gpl > bsd will be an issue since gpl forbids this.
Bsd <> mit are similaf so can coexist pretty much. I think LGPL also plays well with BSD and MIT if i remeber correctly.
However, lets say I fork a project. Also if i remeber correctly means that i will always have to maintain the original license, especially wiyh GPL code hence why people call it viral.
Everything goes back to the original creator and it is only they who can change the license for their code.
However, the OP here is probably wants to keep their code as a "monetary" source without worrying about "getting ripped off". BSD lets you do this, especially in a framework like Yii. Create your own "100%" code and chatge customers.
But the problem these days is that its very rare to see 100% code without using jquery or some lib of some sorts and this makes the issue harder and harder to navigate. I imagine that as long as you keep accurate record keeping of "out side" code and the licenses involved things should be pretty much ok. Its when you let a lib slip in without mention that corporations will be shy to go near your "paid" solution, nobody wants to get slapped with a lawsuit or have "important" functuons wiped out by a licensing issue.
Think jpeg, ogg and a few other "google" happy projects! Imagine that one day google says, "pay day!" and shit loads of corporations crap their pants when the realize that their "opensource" has just gone "pay per seat!" Utter nightmare waiting to happen".
So, double check your work with a lawyer, and use your own “commercial” pay per seat license. Or better yet, stick to the cloud and still use a commercial license and just pray that google doesn’t go yahoo on you to keep their company a float, patent trolling is going to be a way to keep companies on life support when creative employees have left them for better salaries amd name recognition.
This wont happen in the next 5 years with googlr so so your thing and put a little aside for lawyers when the trolls go hunting 