SoftwareLicensing » History » Version 5
laforge, 03/06/2016 05:32 AM
formatting changes, fix links.
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2 | 4 | laforge | h1. Software Licensing |
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5 | 5 | laforge | h2. [[OpenBSC:]] and related executable programs |
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7 | 5 | laforge | The following notes apply to software described on this wiki, developed as part of the Osmocom project. Specifically, it applies to [[OpenBSC:]], [[OsmoNITB:]], [[OsmoSGSN:]], gb_proxy, ipaccess-config, bsc_nat, osmo-bsc_mgcp, ... |
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9 | For reasons of simplicity, we always call it _OpenBSC_ here. |
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11 | 5 | laforge | *OpenBSC is copyrighted software like any other computer program. In order to use [[OpenBSC:]], you need a license from the copyright holders.* |
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13 | 5 | laforge | If you do not arrange for a different license with the copyright holders, the software ships with a default license: The "AGPLv3":http://fsf.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html (GNU Affero General Public License, Version 3). |
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16 | h4. General idea behind the License |
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19 | 5 | laforge | The general idea behind our licensing model is as follows: You receive the full source code of the [[OpenBSC:]] software and can use it like you see fit, *but* we require you to release the source code of any modifications or derivative work you create. |
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21 | 5 | laforge | With AGPL, it does not matter whether you ever distribute the [[OpenBSC:]] software. As soon as you provide a GSM network using [[OpenBSC:]], all users are entitled to receive a copy of the license text and the _complete corresponding source code_ of the very version you are using to run the GSM network with. |
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24 | 2 | laforge | h2. libosmocore |
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26 | 5 | laforge | [[libosmocore:]] (and its siblings @libosmogsm@, @libosmovty@, @libosmoctrl@, etc.) are licensed under "GNU GPL Version 2, or any later version". This means at the time of this writing, you can license them under either "GPLv2":http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html or "GPLv3":http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html. |
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28 | 5 | laforge | As both GPLv2 and GPLv3 are _strong copyleft_ licenses, it means that creating a derivative work of the library and an executable program will require that executable program to be under the same GPL version. |
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30 | 5 | laforge | If you use the libraries together with the Osmocom executable programs (see above), then libosmocore will be licensed under GPLv3, which is compatible with the AGPLv3 of the executable programs. |
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33 | h2. Questions |
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35 | 5 | laforge | If you have any questions regarding the licenses used in the Osmocom project, please contact the project authors *before* you create any kind of product or a derivative work. |