[License-discuss] Using opensource in a company not in the software business

[Cinly Ooi]

You _are_ in the software business.

The correct person to evaluate your case is your lawyer.

As Woolley said, regardless of which the license of the software you choose
uses, you still have responsibility under open source license, and your
customers have expectations as provided for by the license.

It is the same whether it is open source license or close source license

Your lawyer will look at each license you need to use and apply it to see
whether it meets your business objective.

Another good place to start is to see is there any local people who can
talk you through it for the price of a coffee. However, your lawyer has the
final say.


Best Regards,
Cinly

*****
“There should not be an over-emphasis on what computers tell you, because
they only tell you what you tell them to tell you,” -- Joe Sutter, Boeing
747 Chief Engineer.

On 28 November 2016 at 10:23, FREJAVILLE Etienne <
etienne.frejaville at coface.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
>
>
> I'm sorry for asking a question that has probably been answered in the
> past, but I couldn't find a clear and precise answer on the subject on your
> website or any web resource.
>
>
>
> We are a private company and we wonder how to deal with developments using
> open source.
>
>
>
> First of all we are not a software company, and therefore we just provide
> software applications to our customers, so that they can use our
> services/buy our products.
>
>
>
> We develop with code that may use opensource, both:
>
>
>
> - 1. Pure internal software
>
> - 2. Software for our customers provided as Web applications (that
> obviously interacts with a part of our internal software).
>
> - 3. Software for our customers provided as mobile applications
> (IOS&Android apps) that interacts with a part of our internal software.
>
>
>
> The usage we make of opensource, is either use the opensource products as
> standalone products (e.g Maven, Kados..), or use them ‘as is’ as libraries
> (most java or javascript) (e.g POI, jQuery...).
>
> We do not modify or enhance the open source code of the used libraries.
>
> At last, our code must be kept as proprietary and we don’t consider
> providing the source code using the opens source libraries.
>
>
>
> I have read quite a few pages on the opensource.org website, the FAQ and
> other external papers, but it seems that the licences discussions and
> restrictions, concern most of the time the usage of the open source in
> commercial products, or concern the distribution of open sources
> modifications.
>
>
>
> First of all, I would like to know if a software provided to our customers
> in our case, is considered in the open source terminology as a 'customer
> product'.
>
> Second, I would like to understand what 'distribution' stands for. Is
> distributing a web application or mobile application considered
> 'distribution' ?
>
> We provide some binary code that may contain usages of open source
> libraries, to some of our subsidiaries. Is it also considered as
> 'distribution' ?
>
>
>
> The idea behind these questions is to know if in fact we have to care
> about using Open source software or not in our situation..
>
>
>
> If indeed we provide a commercial product and we are considering
> distributing software that may require the usage of opensource libraries
> for being able to work, indeed, I guess we are concerned by Open source
> usage.
>
> If it's the case, I will have more precise questions regarding the usage
> we make of these libraries, to understand what licences we may use and what
> we may not.
>
>
>
> Thank you.
> **********************************************************************
> Le groupe Coface, un leader mondial de l'assurance-crédit, propose aux
> entreprises du monde entier des solutions pour les protéger contre le
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> assurent un service de proximité dans 67 pays.
>
> The Coface Group, a worldwide leader in credit insurance, offers companies
> around the globe solutions to protect them against the risk of financial
> default of their clients. 4 400 staff in 67 countries provide a local
> service worldwide.
>
>
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