csvhelper: questions about license

Question

I was thinking of asking this question in the NuGet project, but they redirected me here to ask generic questions. So I will ask here.

I want to develop an application that will use the CsvHelper library, and on their website they told that it is free for commercial uses. But later I found that I can choose between two licenses, Apache 2.0 or Microsoft Public License, that I can choose which one is more suitable for my case.

I would prefer to not give the source code to the client, but if none of the licenses allow that, it is not a problem.

Also I prefer to avoid that my customer could give the application to others, but I don't know if it is possible with this kind of licenses. Really it is not mandatory, I could allow it, but at first I would prefer to not allow that.

It seems that Microsoft allows me to keep my source code as closed source, if I am not wrong, but I don't know if it allows all of my preferences, to not give the source code and to not allow distribution to 3rd parties.

Answer 1

The license.txt of this library clearly states that the library is dual licensed, you can therefore choose under which terms you want to use it, either Apache or MS-PL.

Both licenses allow that you can keep your own code as closed source, if you want, and you can sell your application for money under a license of your choice, provided, however, that you comply with the requirements that come with the license of your choice (Section 3 of the MS-PL, or Section 4 of the Apache license). That should not be difficult for you, you can achieve your objective with any of the 2 license options for the CsvHelper library.