Commercial use of open source software

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Commercial use of open source software

I'd been trying to read about Open Source Software (OSS) but I'm still not clear about the scope of commercial use of OSS.

Where can I find more details about the commercial use of OSS?

Only then can I concentrate on "What License should I use for a new OSS project in .NET" for FOSS.

+1 A:

OSS means just the the software is open source. It says nothing about the actual license used - and there are many different ones. Some licences have no restrictions for commercial use, some do.

You need to read the license for the specific OSS you want to use in order to find out if you can use it commercially.

See this SO question and the answers (How to choose an open source license for an app) for more details and thoughts.

Oded 2010-03-04 08:24:37

Thx oded, As I'm very new to Open source concept so I'm trying to read and understand more about it. I'm a newbie who had just started learning C#, I like this GUI (windows forms) thing and so I want to develop something nice to use. But I'm not sure what kinda license (open source concept) I should be using in my development so that the society can use it commercially for free. If u can guide me to a place from where I can get/see such applications/utilities then it would be a gr8 help. I need to understand a lot from experience of new friends like u all here.

gsvirdi 2010-03-06 06:59:42

@gsvirdi - selecting a license is a very important step and should be done in consultation with a lawyer, in order to ensure that the license fits your needs and is legally right. See http://www.opensource.org/licenses/category for the types of licenses available.

Oded 2010-03-06 14:06:43

+1 A:

Have a look at Open source initiatives list of licenses http://www.opensource.org/licenses/category

Ledhund 2010-03-04 08:25:54

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Commercial use of open source software

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