Web application license

Question

I am building simple cms in codeigniter for private use. what license is best for me like MIT or apache or something else ? or I shouldn't ? please advice me. Thanks

Added:

I am installing it for other small private businesses, I don't know which license is good. Or do I not need one ? please advise

Answer 1

You license choice will depend completely on what kind of rights you want to grant to other people and what rights you want to reserve for yourself.

If you don't really care what other people do with your code, try an MIT license. It requires other people who use your code to acknowledge that you were the one who wrote it, but otherwise allows them to use, distribute, or modify it as they please.

If you want to make sure that people don't take your code and make money off of it, try a Creative Commons license with a "non-commercial" clause.

You might want to take a look at the Creative Commons license generator. It asks you several questions and generates a license for you based on the response. You might also want to look at the various licenses available on opensource.org.

Answer 2

I am installing it for other small private businesses, I don't know which license is good. Or do I not need one ? please advice

Answer 3

MIT and Apache are functionally equivalent.

When you say "private use" what do you mean?

Do you want others to be able to use your software? Modify it? Have access to source? Do you want any money for any of the above?

Updated:

You're going to be installing it for other small businesses...

I suggest you think long and hard before rejecting use of a free open source CMS such as Joomla. Writing your own "simple cms" is a recipe for unhappy customers who will always want something "small" added or changed.

But the main issue to think over is your business model: how will you be supporting your software? Answering change requests? Do you want your customers to be able to change the software on their own? With the help of someone whom they'd hire? Do you want your customers to be able to share fixes and improvements that they've made with each other?