O
Open Source
Guest
Hello I am a passive observer and would like to post about open source. I have no relationship to the parties of that report
While it may seem morally wrong to sell open source code... it is not illegal, and what would be more important is if the open source code has a license. If there was no license published with the open source code it is not actually open source. In legal terms it would be protected by copyright, and there would have to be permission from the author to sell it. However if there is a MIT/Apache/BSD license attached then it becomes a different story and must be analyzed based off the terms of the license. This part is critical and this distinction is necessary to make when adjudicating cases like this
Additional point, if they have made modifications or provide services for set up then there are added things you are getting from just downloading some code without knowing how to run or set it up. There are plenty of cases in software where free or open source software gets resold or hosted for you and people pay for it. I am speaking up because this kind of case can create dangerous precedent if not handled correctly
While it may seem morally wrong to sell open source code... it is not illegal, and what would be more important is if the open source code has a license. If there was no license published with the open source code it is not actually open source. In legal terms it would be protected by copyright, and there would have to be permission from the author to sell it. However if there is a MIT/Apache/BSD license attached then it becomes a different story and must be analyzed based off the terms of the license. This part is critical and this distinction is necessary to make when adjudicating cases like this
Additional point, if they have made modifications or provide services for set up then there are added things you are getting from just downloading some code without knowing how to run or set it up. There are plenty of cases in software where free or open source software gets resold or hosted for you and people pay for it. I am speaking up because this kind of case can create dangerous precedent if not handled correctly
