Mark Maskery a écrit :
We develop and sell a server based application as an appliance in which, in general, the customer does not have direct access to the operating system. My question is, are we allowed to use CentOS as the underlying operating system and if so what licence considerations are there or what licence information would we need to include for our customers?
Yes, you are allowed to do that. And if your business runs well, consider a donation to CentOS.
Cheers,
Niki Kovacs
On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:21:14AM +0200, Niki Kovacs wrote:
Mark Maskery a écrit :
We develop and sell a server based application as an appliance in which, in general, the customer does not have direct access to the operating system. My question is, are we allowed to use CentOS as the underlying operating system and if so what license considerations are there or what license information would we need to include for our customers?
Yes, you are allowed to do that. And if your business runs well, consider a donation to CentOS.
Review the GPL, BSD, X11 and other licenses as outlined on the CentOS web site (see also Red Hat's web site).
You may need to make it very visible that there is CentOS under the hood. You need to make available the source to the CentOS bits you deliver to your customer including changes you make.
Your application need not be GPL as long as you are 100% the sole author.
Give special attention to "derived" work in the GPL. If part of your application is GPL then it may well all be GPL.
To simplify your package requirements collect all the CentOS iso images and deliver them to your customer (both source and binary iso images). Then add media for the changes you make to CentOS. Lastly add separate media for the application you are selling.
Lastly pay attention to updates and security fixes that you deliver from CentOS or other repo. If the customer does not download them then you have some obligations....
Nifty Cluster Mitch wrote:
On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:21:14AM +0200, Niki Kovacs wrote:
Mark Maskery a écrit :
We develop and sell a server based application as an appliance in which, in general, the customer does not have direct access to the operating system. My question is, are we allowed to use CentOS as the underlying operating system and if so what license considerations are there or what license information would we need to include for our customers?
Yes, you are allowed to do that. And if your business runs well, consider a donation to CentOS.
Review the GPL, BSD, X11 and other licenses as outlined on the CentOS web site (see also Red Hat's web site).
You may need to make it very visible that there is CentOS under the hood. You need to make available the source to the CentOS bits you deliver to your customer including changes you make.
Your application need not be GPL as long as you are 100% the sole author.
Give special attention to "derived" work in the GPL. If part of your application is GPL then it may well all be GPL.
To simplify your package requirements collect all the CentOS iso images and deliver them to your customer (both source and binary iso images). Then add media for the changes you make to CentOS. Lastly add separate media for the application you are selling.
This is the KEY to distributing CentOS where there are really NO requirements to get any permission or do anything. If you distribute the CentOS ISOs exactly as they are provided then you do not need anyone's permission to do so. If you build your application and distribute it on a separate ISO, then you can also ship the CentOS ISOs to your customers (or make both available for download, etc).
The CentOS-5 and CentOS-4 ISOs have the ability to install packages from 3rd Party ISOs.
Also, if you use this method, your customers can get CentOS updates from CentOS and you only need to maintain your product (and provide CentOS isos to your customers if they ask).
Lastly pay attention to updates and security fixes that you deliver from CentOS or other repo. If the customer does not download them then you have some obligations....
Mark Maskery wrote:
We develop and sell a server based application as an appliance in which, in general, the customer does not have direct access to the operating system. My question is, are we allowed to use CentOS as the underlying operating system and if so what licence considerations are there or what licence information would we need to include for our customers?
CentOS as a distribution is shipped under the GPL license. So your app would need to comply with and be compatible with the GPL license and all the issues that come with that. You should speak to a lawyer about what the implications might be.
There are also specific considerations and requirements to using CentOS including the logo and name. I believe this is some information about that on the website.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no one present on this list who would be able to give you definitive legal advice for your specific circumstances.
- KB
Karanbir Singh wrote:
We develop and sell a server based application as an appliance in which, in general, the customer does not have direct access to the operating system. My question is, are we allowed to use CentOS as the underlying operating system and if so what licence considerations are there or what licence information would we need to include for our customers?
CentOS as a distribution is shipped under the GPL license.
Which means you need to either give source or a written offer to supply it on demand for 3 years.
So your app would need to comply with and be compatible with the GPL license and all the issues that come with that.
Programs that are 'aggregated' by inclusion on the same media aren't necessarily affected by the OS license. The GPL requirements are only inherited if your application is derived from a GPL work, as for example, by including libraries covered by the GPL (and most, but not all have the more liberal LGPL, so you have to check this carefully whether you supply the OS or not).
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Johnny Hughes -
Karanbir Singh -
Les Mikesell -
Mark Maskery -
Nifty Cluster Mitch -
Niki Kovacs