In these days of “everything on the web for free” public collaboration on free software has created what “techies” call open source. With its origins in freeware and shareware of Tucows Inc open source software allows software developers opportunities to develop software programmes more easily and at lower cost. However this comes at a “price” as one caller was to discover.
A software programmer he wished to use open source to add on his own closed source programming and to market the end product commercially.
Could it be done he wondered?
The answer was yes, possibly. Depending on the nature of the software licence for the open source software he might be able to do so. He was advised to look at the open source software site to read the licence agreement for the open source and then to revert to us for further instructions if there appeared anything confusing.
Why the concern?
Well not all open source is “ for free” per se or allows in fact unlimited unrestricted use. Of the three common open source licences in use the commonest restricts future use in the sense that when you build on top of open source the end product ends up being tainted by the open source “foundations” and results in an end open source product.
Fine if you don’t mind sharing for free and of contributing to the world knowledge base and advancement of science etc, less so if you wish to create in the end a “closed source” product from which you can make a fortune.
Since he wished in the end a commercially viable product for which he could claim ownership and copyright the licence was king and he was advised to choose his open source site and licence very carefully.
Open source software is today very common for software developers but it pays to get the licence scrutinised in advance by a good IT lawyer lest you spend a lot of time and money developing a programme which in the end you will not own.
