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Can Open Source software be used for commercial purposes?

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Question added by Zaid Rabab'a , Software Development Team Leader , Al-Safa Co. Ltd.
Date Posted: 2013/04/25
Bassem Zohdy
by Bassem Zohdy , Senior Software Architect , HelpAG

based on license of this software MIT as Jquery you can use and change Apache as Apache Application Server you can use and change LGPL you can use but if change you have to provide it as LGPL GPL you can use only in another open source application with GPL you have to read more about license or contact specialist in this topic it is not easy and have many rules

Esam Rabba
by Esam Rabba , Technical Manager r , Hydra Soft , ZagTrader.com

yes of course

Faizan Ahmad
by Faizan Ahmad , Software Engineer , cardekho.com

Short answer - yes.
Free and open source software is legal for both personal and business use.
FOSS comes with a free license such as GPL (e.g.
Linux kernel).
Other application software comes with a slightly different license.
You will find license information on projects website itself.
There is one very simple rule that you should follow while using FOSS for business or personal use is Do not take source code you did not write and try to sell it as your own software, period.

Yes of course , you can do this by choosing the most appropriate license , some sites offers the software for free and gains money from the support it provides and the customizations the clients asks for.

Vineeth Nair
by Vineeth Nair , Senior Software Engineer , QBurst Technologies, INFOPARK

ofcourse open source dont ever mean that u dont put a charge on your development efforts, there are lot of opensource commerical products and services already available

Yes, you can use open source as legal for commercially but you will have to check license type.
Some license type doesn't allow you to use that commercially.

Raghavendra Prakash
by Raghavendra Prakash , Senior Architect , Mindtree Limited

Watch out for open source license associated with your plan of commercializing.
GPL v3.0: Generate revenue by adopting your open source software in SaaS offering model LGPL: Charge for your module MIT, Creative commons, Apache2.0 BSD: Yes, business friendly AGPL:  Careful design may able to support; however risky.
DONT CONSIDER.
GPL: CANNOT DISTRIBUTE.
Consider LGPL if you are depending on GPL software.
However, it is important to consult your legal department to scrutinize the license terms, its hard for technologist to make differences.
Above list will only provide insight.
 

Zeinab Magdy Mohamed Osman
by Zeinab Magdy Mohamed Osman , Data Entry & Facebook Admin , Tawfer.org

If you find the best ways to make a great work with it, So where's the problem?! In other hand, You can use a chargeable program but your work is not good.
It will depend on you.

Ashraf Sabry
by Ashraf Sabry , Freelancer developer , N/A

You can as long the license of the software is permissive (for example: MIT, BSD or Apache) GPL licensed software can't be used in commercial software unless you release it under GPL too (which seems strange and I don't think anyone will do it) Creative Commons licensed software can be used commercially if the license allow, with the limitations imposed by the license (like attribution or share alike) Before using any free or open source software, you have to read its license and be aware of the famous software licenses (like these mentioned above)

Hazem Salama
by Hazem Salama , Senior Member of Technical Staff , Verizon Communications

You definitely can, big names in IT are making heavy use of open source software, Google, Facebook, Twitter, just to name a few.

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