Hello Everyone,
Right now, I am in the process of starting an online software-as-a-service business. I am currently using an open source package that is licensed through GPL, LGPL, and MPL. Commercial licenses are available for the software, but we're still at a point where we are not sure if we are even going to use this particular open source package. My questions are concerning copyleft.
We utilized the open source package but do not modify the package itself too much. As in, if someone wanted to see the code behind the modification, I do not think it would be a big deal to share. However, we have something else running beside it (that needs to be protected) that takes information FROM the open source package and displays special information to end-users. I am not sure if this counts as a modification. So my first question is: do we need to actually buy a license for the software?
Assuming that we do need to buy a license, at what point do we actually have to buy it? I am using it internally and may be demoing what we have been doing to outside parties, but I am not releasing it to the public yet. Is this OK?
Assuming it was OK and would like to show people remotely what we have been doing, if I provided them a website link would this violate anything? Would I have to password protect it or do something else?
Thank you in advance, I sincerely appreciate it.
Right now, I am in the process of starting an online software-as-a-service business. I am currently using an open source package that is licensed through GPL, LGPL, and MPL. Commercial licenses are available for the software, but we're still at a point where we are not sure if we are even going to use this particular open source package. My questions are concerning copyleft.
We utilized the open source package but do not modify the package itself too much. As in, if someone wanted to see the code behind the modification, I do not think it would be a big deal to share. However, we have something else running beside it (that needs to be protected) that takes information FROM the open source package and displays special information to end-users. I am not sure if this counts as a modification. So my first question is: do we need to actually buy a license for the software?
Assuming that we do need to buy a license, at what point do we actually have to buy it? I am using it internally and may be demoing what we have been doing to outside parties, but I am not releasing it to the public yet. Is this OK?
Assuming it was OK and would like to show people remotely what we have been doing, if I provided them a website link would this violate anything? Would I have to password protect it or do something else?
Thank you in advance, I sincerely appreciate it.
