Can I use an open source framework in a project I plan to profit from?

Question

I'm building a CMS on codeigniter. I'm modifying codeigniter in small ways to make it work with my ideas more seamlessly. But I wonder - are there any restrictions on how I can profit from it? I would think I could build a website with the CMS and charge for it. But what if say, later on I buy a server and set up several accounts for several users of my CMS, and each one remotely controls several different sites, that may or may not be created by me -- can I charge for the use of it then? What if much later on I modify it to do lots of neat stuff for local networks, can I sell licenses for people to set it up on site?

Not that I'm expecting to get that far with it, but I have some nice ideas for it that I haven't seen in CMS software before, and if they are well received, well I just want to know if there is a legal side to this if I use something like codeigniter to build it.

Would I be better off building my own small framework specific to this project?

Answer 1

It's all at the license, there you will find your answer ;)

Answer 2

The short answer is Yes, you can make money based on using open source software. You just can't turn it into closed source.

Answer 3

To add some specifics on why the answer is yes:

1. The CodeIgniter license, and indeed most open-source licenses, involve absolutely no restrictions on the commercial distribution of software and code. You are free to take any open source software and sell it to your hearts content, provided that you retain the original licensing information and in some cases the original source code (in codeigniter's case specifically, it appears as though binary redistribution without accompanying source is OK provided the copyright notice is maintained)

2. The nature of "distribution". Hosting a modified version of CodeIgniter, or more innocently still, a project that uses CodeIgniter as a framework is not considered "distribution". If you made your custom CMS available for download for other people to use on their own webservers, that would be considered distribution and the copyright would then apply (which is still perfectly legal but would require the copyright notices, etc.)