Choosing an open source license

D

Dris

The Benevolent
I'm currently working on a content management system focused on data-driven websites such as blogs and news feeds. I'm planning for the next release to be open source. However, I'm having a difficult time deciding on which license to use (from those listed at Sourceforge). I've written out my requirements here:
http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/permalink.html?id=465

I know there are a lot of people with useful insight on these licenses, so I'm wondering if I might find some here. :)

Thanks everyone!
 
You'd probably be best either writing your own license, or covering it under a combination of licenses.

In other words, you could write:

"For non-commercial or shareware use, this software is covered under the BSD license. For commercial use, it's covered the license and fee described in the document called commercial_license.txt".

I would avoid the GPL licenses - forcing people to release their source code in order to use your product will discourage its use, not encourage it.

Wade
 
I would caution against writing your own. This is eminently doable, but there's everyone and their mother out there doing the very self-same thing.

The biggest problem with the roll-your-own license is the image that you're likely to be projecting of yourself.

By choosing a popular, well-respected and well represented licensing model, you stand a better chance at winning prospective clients over who are all too unsure of open source and how the licensing thereof works.

It just so happens that I've recently emerged from such a search, and I found the Mozilla License to cover all of the specifics and vagaries of mixed development.

By that I mean commercial and open source together.

I'm in the throws of developing a web-based application in PHP4 & MySQL. Much of it will be freely available, but certain aspect / components will be purely commercial. I need to protect my commercial efforts and ensure that I'm remunerated for those efforts...
 
Thanks to both of you.

I considered writing my own license, but I have neither the legal expertise nor the money to find some (though it will be inevitable at some point).

I also considered the GPL, which was recommended over all else by my Open Source Nazi friend (which isn't necessarily a bad thing :p).

To this end, it's looking like the Mozilla License covers what I'm looking for. I'll look into it in more detail.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Dris said:
I also considered the GPL, which was recommended over all else by my Open Source Nazi friend (which isn't necessarily a bad thing :p)...
Click to expand...

Is it not? I thought it would be.

Open Source Nazi .. imagine that. I can see it now - khaki uniform, black cycle boots and a red sash on the right arm with a penguin instead of a fylfot / swastika...
 
octane said:
Is it not? I thought it would be.

Open Source Nazi .. imagine that. I can see it now - khaki uniform, black cycle boots and a red sash on the right arm with a penguin instead of a fylfot / swastika...
Click to expand...

lol... Nice. I'll have to lay some Photoshop down on that idea some time. :)

Thanks for the links, Viro! I'll be sure to look those over.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top