Open Source Newbie

[Bani]

Hi,

> 1. With so many types of license, how do i choose which one should be used
> or adapted from? Can i do this at all? How do we get an approval from the
> open source org for an approval of the license?
> http://opensource.org/licenses/category

You are highly encouraged to use the text of a pre-existing license
instead of adapting it, and the main reason for that is because it
makes it easier for your users to understand it, avoiding new
conflicts because of new clauses. It is very unlikely that you'll get
a new license approved when you don't have a strong community of users
behind it.
Now, to choose a license, that is the tricky part. There are two books
related to this subject that I can recommend:
- Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property
Law, by Lawrence Rosen
- Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing, by Andrew M.
St. Laurent
But maybe someone can give you a shorter guide.

> 2. What is the difference between the two web sites and the license on these
> websites?
> www.opensource.org and http://creativecommons.org/

The first is for software and the second is focused on other types od
content (text, media, etc)

> 3. We are thinking of offering paid customer service for this offering at a
> later point of time.
> Would it be ok for us to offer paid customer support and accept donations
> for running this initiative/ offering at the same time?

I don't see any problem there.


Regards,
Vanessa