[SOLVED] How do I obtain software licenses?

MisterHerbal98 · 09-15-2011, 03:46 AM

I am currently working on a Fork of Gnome 2, Anyway I was thinking about the Software Licenses (Like GPL, BSD, CDDL, etc). What Do I have to do to obtain a Software License for my Gnome 2 Fork? Do I have to apply for a license or Can I Just claim it?

jschiwal · 09-15-2011, 04:01 AM

The license is contained in the source which you have downloaded in order to fork it.

You will probably need to grep through the source to locate branding you need to change. Also check for the license of each file to make sure you haven't missed any.

MisterHerbal98 · 09-15-2011, 04:26 AM

I guess there all GPL beacuse I got the files from the Gnome FTP, and I am only going to use Gnome Files (no third parties).

TobiSGD · 09-15-2011, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterHerbal98

I guess there all GPL beacuse I got the files from the Gnome FTP, and I am only going to use Gnome Files (no third parties).

Guessing is in no way good. Just because you can download the files via FTP doesn't mean that they have to be GPL, they can also use BSD, Mozilla, Apache or other open source licenses. To avoid legal consequences you actually should look for the licenses in the downloaded packages and read them. Also, just because the software is GPL (or open source) doesn't mean that the name or artwork are free to use, you also should look that up.

frankbell · 09-15-2011, 08:13 PM

I think the GNU GPL FAQ page will answer these questions.

The third category, just a little way down the page, is "Using GNU licenses for your programs."