Releasing a PHP CMS... how to?

Question

I'm about to release a CMS written in PHP (using Zend Framework). It's very powerful and easy to manage once you understand it.

I was wondering to release it some under commercial license (I want money) but I realized that there's a saturation of CMS's on market.

So I think I'm going to release it under some open-source license. I know I have to choose the license but the question is: once the license is choosen what do I need to do to release it? To turn it official, so one cannot just "steal" it's code and say that created it.

I read on a website that I just need to create a file called "license" and write the license there but what about the security? I know the code cannot be compiled or obfuscated so what do I do to "turn official" that I created it?

Thank you for attention.

Answer 1

Licenses don't actually prevent someone from viewing/taking code - they just give you grounds to take legal measures against someone if they violate the terms of the license.

A license is official from the moment you specify that it's the license that applies to the code. The most common way of doing this is including a text file with the license as part of the download (and many of the common open-source licenses specifically refer to including the license with the code if any copies are made), but it's also just as valid if you specify a license on your website or such.

Answer 2

This is really a legal question, and while Stack Overflow is good for programming questions, it's not really meant to give you legal advice. You should ask a lawyer.

That said, I am not a lawyer, but in the United States I've heard that you should submit your creation to the US Copyright Office. The real purpose of that is so that if you get sued (or want to sue someone) you can produce something that "proves" it's your creation. Under the Berne Convention your work is copyrighted the moment you create it, but the US courts still like to see some proof.

But again, this is pretty much only useful if someone takes you to court, or if you want to take someone to court. As a practical matter that may not even come up.

Advice for other countries may vary.

Answer 3

There is no way to "officiate" an open source project. If your license states that the user is allowed to redistribute or modify code, then they are free to do so. The idea behind open source is that the source code is visible to anyone who wishes to see it. Compiled or obfuscated code (without the original source) is not open source, it is simply proprietary code with exposed endpoints.

Consider which license you wish to implement; a good starting point is to look at other open source projects which have licenses that you can appreciate. For instance, Mozilla Firefox is licensed under the tri-license. Apache code is released under the Apache license. There are plenty of decent licenses that are available to choose from, and most of them have "Boilerplate" code which you place at the top of each file (stating that the file is under a given license).

While there is no open source means of enforcing a license, you can police the community and industry to ensure that your license's terms are not being violated. Should someone violate the terms of your license, you have the option to send a cease and desist notice or bring about legal action.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Take a look at how ExpressionEngine does it. They're a PHP based commercial CMS.

Answer 5

I was wondering to release it some under commercial license (I want money) but I realized that there's a saturation of CMS's on market.

So I think I'm going to release it under some open-source license.

You seem to be talking about "commercial" and "open-source" as if they're opposites. You do know there's such thing as "commercial open-source"?

what do I need to do to release it? To turn it official, so one cannot just "steal" it's code and say that created it.

Someone can ALWAYS steal your code if you release it (even if it's compiled they can theoretically reverse-engineer it - though it may not be practically feasible) - a licence just gives you the right to take legal action if someone does.

I read on a website that I just need to create a file called "license" and write the license there but what about the security?

The licence gives you legal security.

Answer 6

For "turning official" you might consider an established project hoster, like Sourceforge or Google Code, github. Once your code is in SVN or another VCS repository, there's a timestamp associated with it. If you use one of the trusted big hosting services, this pretty much establishes proof of your authorship best.

As for the license: use the GNU GPL if you don't want code reuse. Use the LGPL if you want to permit and encourage it. Use the AGPL if you want contributions back. Or use MIT or BSD-style licenses if you want attribution and to spread quality code instead.
But as you already mentioned, there is an abundance of WebCMSes. So it won't make much of a difference anyway.