17
sam9669
7y

Is it legal and ethical if I make closed source software using open source tools ?

Comments
  • 5
    I guess you'd have to read your way through their licenses
  • 3
    Depends on the licence, I think
  • 2
    @karwler @chilledfrogs @ThatDude MIT,apache? Also any other ones that are open ones ?
  • 8
    Ethics don't really have a place here. They are open source for a reason. Take a look at their licenses for whether or not you can use it.

    Theres a billion types. Generally most let you as long as you mention it on an about and also ship the license with your source+ binaries/whatever
  • 3
    @sam9669
    https://opensource.org/licenses

    As well as the individual authors permission. If they havent included a license, you must reach out to them and /ask/
  • 2
    It is ethical if the author gives you permission to do so. Software authors give permissions using licenses. Depending on which license a project is distributed with, you are allowed to do what that license says both legally and ethically.

    Examples of licenses where people basically allow you almost everything :
    Apache
    BSD
    MIT
    CC-0 / CC-by / public domain

    When people want you to make OSS from their software, they use GNU GPL. (it doesn't forbid you selling the software though, as long as you share the code)
  • 1
    Should be fine. I'm not aware of any open-source software license that lays claim over the creative output from its use.
    Else there's be mountains of stuff claimed by blender, gimp, even VS code, notepad++.
  • 1
    Yes, it is legal. Any software license that restricts what you can use the software for is in any way whatsoever is a proprietary software license! No exceptions. See the Open Source Definition.

    Whether software is open source or proprietary has nothing to do with the ethicality of what you do with said software. Do what you want with he tools that work best for you.
  • 1
    It's not illegal or unethical to write proprietary software using Linux Kernel.
    Which is open source.

    The question about using open source tools is silly, even in an ethical way.
  • 1
    Absolutely, if u use Google's play music for example, In the app they have this option to see open source licenses. So if the license agrees the way ur developing it and ur giving credit to the developers then no that ain't unethical but actually supports the concept of OSS
  • 1
    Sure, Larry Ellison.
  • 1
    I'm working on a big corporation in my country and some Web tools that are for use of the company only have tons of js code that is open source. Although they aren't selling the Web tools it is registered under the company IP
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