"Free Distribution" question
David Woolley
forums at david-woolley.me.uk
Sun Aug 17 18:53:44 UTC 2008
>
> In my particular case, distributions of the software in any form for profit
> would require a license with my company.
>
> Can an OSI approved license work for me?
No. The sphere of endeavour rules applies, not the one that you quote.
You are basically after a no commercial use licence, and such licenses
are not OSI compatible. (No commercial use is an ambiguous term; here I
mean sale for profit - some people want a restriction on internal use as
well.) The mechanism that prevents huge profits is that any recipient
can give away the same software, thus undercutting the initial supplier
(in some markets that is unlikely).
The rule you are quoting is typically about things like share/freeware
CDs or Linux distributions. Some people have licences that do not allow
even charging for CD media, or only making a charge reflecting the
cost of the physical media. The rule is saying that such restrictions
result in a licence that cannot be approved.
--
David Woolley
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