

Ask HN: Am I correct about FOSS licenses and open source software? - nyellin

Earlier today, I tried to answer frederickcook's question about which software licenses are compatible with proprietary software. I posted my answer several hours late on a small thread, so I am reposting it here for your convenience and/or corrections. (The original is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210218)<p>* If you are building a website and you do NOT redistribute the website's software (e.g. allow people to run the website on their own server), you can incorporate code from most open source licenses. Specifically:<p>* The MIT, BSD, PSF, and Apache licenses are fantastic for proprietary websites, even if you do redistribute the website's software. (In which case you will need to include a disclaimer, copyright notice, and/or copy of the license, depending on the details of that specific license.)<p>* Libraries licensed under the AGPL may NOT be used for proprietary websites. The regular GPL's language is unclear about proprietary websites, so you may want to avoid GPL libraries altogether. (I have been told that the FSF claims that the GPL covers websites. Note that the AGPL was written to firmly and explicitly address this issue.)<p>* You may use LGPL libraries, but if you modify them then you may have to release the code that you modified. (Due to the aforementioned uncertainty.) Again, I am not certain about this, but I have seen that claimed before.<p>Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and nothing I say is legal advice. Use the information I provide at your own risk. It may be wrong. I have no legal liability if you use it.<p>Feel free to correct me. I would be happy to hear that I am incorrect regarding the GPL.
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wmf
In general, I wouldn't give advice based on what _I have been told_.

About the GPL, see [http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/07/the-gpl-and-
softwa...](http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/07/the-gpl-and-software-as-
a-serv.html)

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nyellin
Thank you. I found mixed answers on the internet and I will correct my other
post.

