Magento and licensing

Presentation “Magento Licensing” - http://slideshare.net/yireo
Jisse Reitsma (jisse@yireo.com) - Twitter @yireo
Magento Licensing

Licenses
Open source
Closed source
Public domain
Creative Commons

What is open source?
Free Software Foundation
GNU (GNU's not Unix)
Richard Stallman > GNU General Public License (GPL)
Free as in free speech, not free beer
Open source
Less ideology, more practicality
First used together with Linux

Open Source licenses
Open Source License (OSL)
GNU General Public License (GPL)
Apache License
BSD License
MIT License
Mozilla Public License
GNU Lesser GPL

GNU General Public License (preamble)
The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. The licenses for most software and other
practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users.
We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it applies also to any other work released this
way by its authors. You can apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our
General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you
wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and
that you know you can do these things. To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to
surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to
respect the freedom of others. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the
recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show
them these terms so they know their rights. Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the
software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it. For the developers' and authors'
protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software. For both users' and authors' sake, the GPL requires that
modified versions be marked as changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to authors of previous versions. Some
devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do
so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users' freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such
abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this
version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend
this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users. Finally, every program is threatened
constantly by software patents. States should not allow patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers,
but in those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary. To
prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free. The precise terms and conditions for copying,
distribution and modification follow.

BSD 2-clause license
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided
that the following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and
the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Licenses used in Magento
Open Source License (OSL) v3
http://opensource.org/licenses/osl-3.0.php
Magento Enterprise Edition Agreement
http://magento.com/legal/terms/enterprise

License versus Copyright
License agreement
Determines under which circumstance
Copyright
Should lie with person that created code
Should normally never change

Recommendations (1/2)
Custom Magento extension
License: OSL or BSD or custom agreement
Copyright: The developer
Custom Magento development
License: OSL or BSD or custom agreement
Copyright: The customer or the developer
Never use the GPL with Magento!

Recommendations (2/2)
Never release anything in the public domain
Do not help assholes that do not understand open source
Never use ionCube encrypted code
Slower execution
Impossible to troubleshoot by third party
Only consider Creative Commons in special circumstances
Distributing webdesign for reuse by others

end

Magento and licensing

More Related Content

Similar to Magento and licensing

More from Yireo

Recently uploaded

Magento and licensing