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open source/free software
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| Hello,
I'm reading about open source nad free software.
If I understand it right the *main* difference is that open source was
created as to be a more attractive definition for the companies, opposed
to free software (companies dislike freedom :-))
And what about the licence? Does open source licences gives you the same
freedom as GPL?
And a last question. Suppose I write a piece of code using some GPL
libraries and compile the programm statically. If I post *only* the
binaries -and possible earn money for this- is this violeting the
licence? And how can somebody find it out? By reverse engineer? What I
am trying to understand is how can somebody prevail you from doing such
a thing...
thanks
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| ray223@gmail.com 2006-05-23, 4:12 am |
| G0ng wrote:
> If I understand it right the *main* difference is that open source was
> created as to be a more attractive definition for the companies, opposed
> to free software (companies dislike freedom :-))
Open Source is more of an umbrella covering many different types of
licences.
See http://opensource.org
> And what about the licence? Does open source licences gives you the same
> freedom as GPL?
It depends on which Open Source license you choose .. see above
> And a last question. Suppose I write a piece of code using some GPL
> libraries and compile the programm statically. If I post *only* the
> binaries -and possible earn money for this- is this violeting the
> licence? And how can somebody find it out? By reverse engineer? What I
> am trying to understand is how can somebody prevail you from doing such
> a thing...
People why lie and cheat usually get found out and pay the price ... do
you want to take the chance??
Regards,
Ray Smith
ray@RaymondSmith.com
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| ray223@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
>
> People why lie and cheat usually get found out and pay the price ... do
> you want to take the chance??
>
No :-)
What do you mean pay the price? Can they take you to court for this?
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| ray223@gmail.com 2006-05-23, 8:07 am |
|
G0ng wrote:
> ray223@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> No :-)
> What do you mean pay the price? Can they take you to court for this?
I'm not a lawyer ... if you are truly worried go and see one ...
"most" open source licenes (except BSD and LGPL based licenes)
"require" you to give (or make available) the source code of your
program to the "user" of the program.
In the case of GPL licensed software ... the Free Software Foundation
(http://fsf.org) are the copyright holders of all GPL licensed code ...
so if you "break the contract" of use ... they can sue you.
Basically, you need to do some reading (opensource.org is a good start)
and find out which licenses allow use in closed source applications and
which don't.
Some do, some don't.
Regards,
Ray Smith
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