Is it kosher for me to use HTMLAgilityPack in my free open source C# library?

Question

I'm going to make a movie site scraping library that's free and open source.

I want to use HTMLAgilityPack to easily parse web information from HTML source code, but I'm not sure if I legally can? Can I use this library in this way?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Look here: http://htmlagilitypack.codeplex.com/license It uses MS-PL which is a OSI approved open source license but not compatible to GPL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Public_License#Microsoft_Public_License_.28Ms-PL.29

You should at least tell us which open source license your library will have.

Edit: The MS-PL should be compatible to the Mozilla Public License which should be a good choise for a open source library: http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ which isn't as restrictive for the users of your library as the GPL (i.e. they can link it in a commercial product). You should also take a look at the BDS-License.

Answer 2

The basic difference between Ms-PL and GPL licences is whether you'll force your users to opens source their changes (copyleft - GPL) or allow them to use your code in commercial applications, so actually, the GPL is more restrictive than non-copyleft licences.

According to the question, I guess Ms-PL is more along the lines of what you want to accomplish, and in sync with the usage of the HtmlAgilityPack

Answer 3

I want the license that lets people do whatever they want without even asking me. Which one would that be?

Public Domain lets people do whatever they want, but it does not even require attribution. I think the MIT license is a good bet if you really don't care what people do with your code (reproduced below from wikipedia article). You will want your license file to be explicit that it does not cover the random OSI you are including. You should also include a list of what software you are including and what licenses it is covered by.

Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.