4 Antworten zu diesem Thema

[primo031]

Is it legal for a company to sell smartstore as an ecommerce solution? I work for an internet startup focused in the e commerce space. We like the concept of smartstore but we would like to use this as a base platform where we can add on features and potentially sell this long term. Now according to http://opensource.org/faq#commercial open source " All Open Source software can be used for commercial purpose; the Open Source Definition guarantees this. You can even sell Open Source software" < is this true? Also according to the licensing on smart store GPL software http://opensource.org/faq#commercial anyone is entitled to sell at any price they chose to. 

[Artar]

Hello primo,

 

you're not allowed to sell the original smartstore.net software or a customized version.

 

you can add features and you are allowed to ask for money for your work on the code. if your work is something like a plugin, you are certainly allowed to sell the plugin itself.

 

but everyone is allowed to use smartstore.net for any (other) commercial purpose without any fee.

.

 

 

[Murat Cakir]

Let me clarify this further: in theory, every customization you make must be made available to the public, with source code. That's the viral nature of GPL. Loose exceptions to this rule are:

• You do not plan to distribute your end-product in any way, be it free or paid. You can, however, sell your customization services to any customer who pays for it.
• You plan to develop a chargeable plugin. In this case you don't have to release the source code of the plugin.

[primo031]

Do you have any legal documentation supporting this? Every bit of research I've done states all open source software can be used for commercial purposes and is allowed to be sold or resold at the buyers/sellers discretion. 

[jay6390]

We have donde extensive research on this and to put it black and white: all the code what you get open must remain open and free but you can develop enhancements as plugins and you can sell them separately and remain proprietary. For example you can take the code of Smartstore and make some few changes and assign your own brand (i.e. "Smarterstore") but it has to remain open source under the GPL rules, and then you can call your plugin enhancement Smarterstore Plus and sell them in object code. Besides you my charge for all the services that you provide (training, customization, enhancements, etc.) using any open source code.