Questions tagged [commercial]

Commercial activity is anything to make money. This tag is for questions about making money with Open Source / Free Software, or other interaction between open projects and commercial activity. Warning: Open Source / Free Software can be commercial as well. Do not use this tag to mean not-open-source. Use the [proprietary] or [closed-source] tags instead.

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0 answers
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Python QT Dll for commercial use

I need to create a software with Python for desktop. Because my study history on programation, I wanted to use the QT, but I have some doubts for it. And pleasy, don't tell me about the other asks, I ...
-1 votes
1 answer
80 views

What type of license is protected my source from publishing the compiled product for free? [closed]

I am working on a commercial iOS application and recently I have made my mind to make it open source If I can find a proper license which fits my needs. This application is an end-product application, ...
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2 votes
1 answer
114 views

What is the best-practice for commercial vendors who build their offering on top of Open-Source software?

My company is currently developing a commercial software for our clients (it will be offered both under a commercial license for SaaS and also a binary for on-site private network usage). This ...
0 votes
1 answer
105 views

GNU General Public License v3.0 Embedded Web Program Question

Say I have a program named X. If I edit X, I have to make the source code of X open source. If I have another program (say a web application) and I write my own code Y (which is closed source) and I ...
0 votes
1 answer
53 views

QT on windows - limitations, restrictions, commercial products

I've downloaded the qt online installer from: https://www.qt.io/download-open-source to develop on Windows. My question is: as long as we respect LGPL are we forced to buy a commercial license (for ...
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13 votes
1 answer
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MariaDB: How can the license being held by a foundation forbid Oracle from buying MariaDB?

I was looking though : Learning MySQL and MariaDB [ Russell J.T. Dyer / O’Reilly / 2015 ] where I came across a licensing Issue. It says [ Preface Section ] : "The software license, though, is ...
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1 vote
1 answer
49 views

License GPLv3 scenario for a plugin A for Blender 3D and software B that communicates with plugin A. What is the license for software B?

I would like to create a plugin let's called 'A' for Blender 3D and a software let's called it 'B' that communicates with the plugin A through network. I know that Blender 3D has GPL license for the ...
1 vote
1 answer
65 views

Launching an application from another application

I have a GUI program that launches at start-up on a Linux machine. And this GUI can launch other applications like Spotify. I want to put this machine as a car's infotainment system of a vehicle that ...
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1 vote
0 answers
112 views

Confusion about Licenses

I have confusion about how the GNU open source licenses and QT commercial licenses. In the QT's pricing page it says: Can I distribute Qt binaries in conjunction with my desktop or mobile application?...
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3 votes
1 answer
168 views

Does LGPLv3 Tivoization apply to non "User Products"?

LGPLv3 section 4e: Provide Installation Information, but only if you would otherwise be required to provide such information under section 6 of the GNU GPL, and only to the extent that such ...
2 votes
1 answer
63 views

Can GPLv3 contributions to a separate project be used without attribution?

I recently forked a relatively new GPLv3 project on GitHub, as it had seemingly been abandoned not long after its creator had published it, and I wanted to make some improvements, as it was in a ...
0 votes
0 answers
47 views

Can I develop a video game or mod related to 3rd party artwork?

I'm developing a video game with many easter eggs and references to science, technologies, philosophy, and some movies, tv series, animated series, video games, franchises of fictional universes, ...
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-3 votes
1 answer
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Can i copy MIT licensed code and then publish it as my own?

i have a question. Can i copy code (500 lines) from an open source python pip library under MIT license, modify the code and add my (100 lines) and then publish it as not open source and charge people ...
1 vote
0 answers
219 views

FFmpeg & AAC licenses & patents

I checked every AAC- and FFmpeg-related question on the entire StackExchange and it's not yet clear to me. In my project, I provide some audio-only content, encoded in AAC, to the end users. Some ...
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

PyQt5 Commercial License

Suppose I do the following: I code out a very small python program (like no more than five hundred lines of code): I download relevant packages about PyQt5, opencv, numpy, math and matplotlib at ...
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-1 votes
1 answer
2k views

Can I use Apache 2.0 for closed source product?

I have a Product "A" which is a closed source, i.e. the repository is private and wont want to make it as a public repository. Product "A" can also use/dynamically link Library &...
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1 vote
1 answer
63 views

Copy license terms from other product?

This might not be a very "open source" question, but I thought I might find in this forum the right people for the question. For a mortal human being creating a PDF with the license terms ...
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6 votes
2 answers
794 views

Open source licenses and royalties

Many projects, e.g. GitLab, BitWarden, EasyRedmine, use open source software licenses. Their code is publicly available, and the services can be self-hosted. Of course they can charge users for ...
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0 votes
1 answer
59 views

Should I provide my source code if I use GPL source code combined into my subscription service code?

I've looked at other topics related to this question, but mine is quite different from others so I'm not sure about the answer. Let's say I am building a website that will provide SAAS for users. In ...
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6 votes
2 answers
2k views

How is 'commercial use' of software defined?

Licenses often distinguish between commercial use and non-commercial use. I found different sources discussing this topic: What is commercial and non-commercial? What Does Commercial Software Mean? ...
0 votes
0 answers
49 views

Why can't I distribute my application und a license of my choice when I accept contributions? [duplicate]

I have an app that I want to make open source, as in the literal definition of the code being public. Github says that if you don't apply a license, it's copyrighted by default. I want that, to be the ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
47 views

How to respect user freedom when selling consumer software without services?

By "consumer software", I mean stand-alone software that an end-user would directly download and use on a desktop or phone. No business or corporation involved. I have read these questions ...
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is using SheetJS free for commercial use?

I downloaded a version of SheetJS here https://unpkg.com/xlsx@0.17.4/dist/xlsx.full.min.js It's basically a version of xlsx that allows me to export an excel document and allows me to manipulate data ...
1 vote
0 answers
42 views

How does software licensing works for Docker Images on commercial usage? [duplicate]

I want to develop and share an application for commercial usage (closed source only). This application only "lives" inside a Docker Image. This Docker Image is based an own Dockerfile which ...
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

Preventing commercial exploitation of small changes that require a lot of work

At my previous job I was responsible for building and maintaining a library in their ecosystem. The project is mature in the sense that no major new features are being implemented. It is still ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
209 views

Can I sell an Electron application that use a library under Eclipse Public License 1.0 without disclosing the source code of the entire app?

I want to sell an Electron desktop application that uses a JS library under the Eclipse Public License 1.0 license. One of the conditions is to "disclose source". It's not totally clear to ...
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-2 votes
1 answer
72 views

Can I impose the requirement of a paid license if and only if my software is offered as a service?

I'm getting ready to open source a project that facilitates the deployment, maintenance, and orchestration of data platforms on just about any architecture (locally, on any cloud of your choosing, on ...
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2 votes
1 answer
115 views

Package that includes a library file with non-commercial license

We are trying to use a package released by a commercial entity for use with one of their reporting software. I think it was closed source at one point then they converted it to a "Community" ...
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0 votes
0 answers
116 views

Dual license GPL/non-commercial + commercial SDK license

Looking to release an open-source SDK, all of which uses novel code OR dependencies that are MIT/Apache. For the business model, I would like to sell commercial-use licenses for use with the SDK, ...
3 votes
2 answers
562 views

Is GPL copyleft triggered by distribution alone?

Would distributing a commercial closed source application along with a GPLd standalone binary, which the closed source application calls trigger the requirement to license whole app under GPL? (For ...
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1 vote
1 answer
66 views

Dual Licensing for Artistic Software

Let's say I'd like to develop an end-user application with which you can create some kind of artistic work (say presentations or drawings). As a fan of the open source idea, I'd like to open-source ...
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16 votes
4 answers
6k views

How can I deal with this (predatory?) scenario?

This question is related, but it is different to this one: How can I forbid shady resale practices? Scenario: Suppose that a small team or startup (company A), develops a good software project, which ...
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1 vote
1 answer
92 views

Is the Ender 3 V2 licensed under the same license as the original?

Somewhere in 2018, it was a big deal when Chinese company Creality made their Ender 3 printer 'truly open source', as acknowledged by the Open Source HardWare Association. See for example this YouTube ...
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-1 votes
1 answer
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Metaflac.exe and flac.exe license with commercial software

With this zip file, it contains both the metaflac.exe and flac.exe that I would like to bundle with software that I intend to sell. The license is here. https://xiph.org/flac/license.html I'm unclear ...
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2 votes
1 answer
146 views

Can I use the output of a free for personal use software that requires a license for commercial use in an art project [closed]

As the title says, can I use the output, a jpeg image, of a software which states it can be downloaded free of charge for academic, government, nonprofit, and personal use, but which requires a ...
35 votes
8 answers
7k views

Under copyleft, why distinguish between "free as in free speech" and "free as in free beer"?

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around why copyleft libre software advocates say they advocate for "free as in free speech" software, rather than monetarily free software, when it seems ...
5 votes
1 answer
233 views

Company policy says no code under license requiring sharing source can be used. Stack Overflow is CC-BY-SA. Does this mean we can't use SO at work?

Training at work regarding software licensing instructed us that we should not use code from any project using a license that requires sharing modifications such as the GPL. We can use Linux as an OS ...
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19 votes
3 answers
7k views

Can I relicense an abandoned GPL project if the copyright owners are no longer responsive?

Suppose I want to use GPL-copyrighted software in a closed-source project. With actively maintained projects I can contact the copyright holders to see if I can work out an agreement with them. But ...
1 vote
0 answers
38 views

clarify R licenses: machine learning models, developed with R in Azure, possible for commercial use?

i want to estimate machine learning models with R and i need to use it in a production environment, i'll work with Azure Datascience Virtual Machine or Azure Machine Learning. If i use , for ex., ...
2 votes
3 answers
831 views

Is it legal to repackage GPL software and sell it on Microsoft Store, like GIMP?

I'm surprised to see people are selling GPL'd software on Microsoft Store. An example is GIMP. GIMP is GPL'd opensource image editing tool. There are some vendors on Microsoft Store have repackaged ...
2 votes
0 answers
99 views

Distributing a proprietary library that uses an LGPL library

I would like to create a JAVA library, that will use an LGPL library. The LGPL library is a library that provides an API to create charts, whereas my library will provide a more high level API like ...
-2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can you use code on GitHub for commercial purposes?

so I want to use the code in GitHub to help with my project, I don't sell the code or others I only need the output for my project. in the readme file, the project is built upon A, and B (other GitHub ...
10 votes
2 answers
1k views

Excluding open-source contributions from work-for-hire

I'm doing contract work. I'm being asked to sign a standard (AFAICT) agreement that assigns all intellectual property I create to the employer. The context of this work is typical Python and Go ...
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1 vote
1 answer
140 views

Do we have to choose a GPL License when we use MIT, GPLv.2+, LGPL2.1, LGPL3, Apache 2.0 licensed libraries in our distribution?

Our question more specific would be if the whole work has to be published (a must) under GPLv.3 or LGPLv.3 as the used gettext.inc, gettext.php, streams.php are GNU GPLv.2 or later and Smarty is ...
0 votes
2 answers
655 views

How to include licenses of dependencies in commercial closed-source proprietary software?

Our company is developing an enterprise application that is essentially a set of different applications (microservices). Some of these microservices are based on node.js while others are based on ...
4 votes
1 answer
200 views

Web Frontend uses GPL3 Library

I do know that license conditions must be applied if I want to distribute my app. But, if my app is a frontend and I use GPL3 licensed library on it, does that count as distributed? Do I need to make ...
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1 vote
1 answer
60 views

Licensing commercial product for open source MIT project

We have under development a commercial library of controls for a UI framework. An open source (MIT licenced) project wishes to use these controls and we want to let them use them. So I guess my ...
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2 votes
0 answers
853 views

How to give attribution for Open Source Licenses used in commercial SaaS web-applications?

Say I commercialize a SaaS Web Application that uses a component licensed under GNU GPL v3 (like CKEditor5) or under Apache 2.0 license (like Material Design Icons), where and how should I give ...
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3 votes
2 answers
1k views

How do you sell a hardware product that uses the linux kernel?

I would like to create a Linux based OS for a VR headset that I'm developing. From what I understand, the Linux kernel uses the GPL-2 license which allows for commercial use but it also requires you ...
2 votes
1 answer
115 views

How to license my software which already includes other software licenses?

I've had a question for a long time on how to license my project. I would really appreciate your guidance to help me choosing the right licenses for my specific case. My main goal is to make available ...

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