What are the benefits of Open Source?
It's transparent
It returns control to the customer, because every user has access to source code. You can see it, change it and even build upon it.
No more vendor lock-in
If you are unhappy with one vendor, you can choose another without massive switching costs.
Large developer community
Open source software is developed in virtual communities (ecosystem). Bugs are found and fixed quickly. The development is ongoing.
Lower costs
You don’t have to start from the scratch. Open source software does not carry high development cost, which means even commercial licenses being relatively low-priced.
What does Open Source mean?
All Gurux Open Source products are licensed under GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2). This means that You can use those products for free, even for commercial purposes. A complete copy of the license text is available here.
Anyone thinking of shipping Gurux software as part of a product should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and distribute Gurux software.
Distributing
If you distribute GPL-licensed software the license requires that you also distribute the complete, corresponding source code (as defined by GPL) to that GPL-licensed software.
If you distribute Gurux software without making the source code to the version you distribute available, you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of Gurux. This requirement applies whether or not you modified Gurux products.
Using the product as such is free , but if you take any part of our source code, and use it in your own software products, You are obligated to release all the source code of those products as Open Source. If You do not want to release the source codes, You need a dual-license agreement with Gurux.
Dual license
With the dual license, you get rights to use, edit, and develop the source code as You want, without obligation to release it publicly, for free.
When paying for a dual-license, you actually buy a version of the product in question, but we still remain to own the copyright to the code. This means that You can not sell the actual source code.
Using Gurux Open Source components and software, as such, is totally free, even for commercial purposes.
Making changes into source code, or taking parts of the source code into Your own application, causes the edited / new source code of Your application become Open Source (public release, for free) too.
Dual-licensing (buying a version of the source code) needs to be done only if You edit / use parts of the source code, but do not release it publicly, for free.
Source code
All Gurux Open Source source code is available at GitHub
http://github.com/gurux
Gurux is not publish new versions at SourceForge anymore.
License enforcement
Open source software is under a different license from proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still infringing copyright and the law gives the copyright holder the right to enforce our copyrights.
Our company wants to have some of Gurux products as a part of his own product. How can we get information about the Gurux license pricing?
This isn't a problem. It costs no money to ask for an offer. Just contact us by
email or phone, and we will reply you with an offer to use as base for further negotiations.
If you share any Gurux binary code, you must also share the full source code.
Also, if you modify Gurux source codes, you must share the modified source codes.
License text obligates you to distribute the source codes for executable files. This gives you three alternative choices:
1. Distribute full source codes for executable files.
2. Publish a written statement with promise to share source codes for a minimum period of three years.
3. Publish a written statement from another author(s) to share source codes.
1. means that Gurux Source codes are distributed using the same media which is used to distribute executable files. If you do this, you have agreed with licensing terms and can stop further reading.
2. means that Gurux binaries are not distributed using a media (like CD-ROM), but Gurux source codes are used inside a device (part of firmware) and it is decided not to distribute them. In this case you must add a note into device's documentation, that the device uses open source components, and the source codes are available by request. Typically source codes are downloadable from company web site.
Regardless of choice 1 or 2, make sure that same source codes are distributed which were used to create binaries. It is not required the source code to be a single file. Many companies share source codes using version numbered file name format gurux-Product-N.N.N.zip, newer versions typically have bug fixes and/or new features.
A violation against GPLv2 License occurs if you add new functionality into Gurux source codes or fix a bug, and then do not distribute it.
3. means that you can share source code which others have made. However there are restrictions and commercial distribution is prohibited. This is the licensing model, which many open source enthusiasts use without paying much attention for other suitable models.
A violation against GPLv2 license occurs if you modify the source code without distributing it to us.
Examples
Why we should buy commercial license if we can use it as free?
Reason is simple: support. When you have problem what you are going to tell your supervisor?
a. I found this from the internet.
b. I'll contact the vendor. They will fix this.
Our company distributes Gurux binaries without source codes. We received a request from a user, wanting to get source codes. What we should do?
Please, stop doing that, and start distributing the source. This usually happens when programmers are acting in good faith and information is not reach the managers.
You are breaking the copyrights and now it's time to fix it. You share your source codes or you will make dual license agreement with us.
Our company is using parts of Gurux's source code. We are not planning to make dual license agreement. What I can do?
Please send us email about the situation. Our lawyers will contact your executives and surely we can find an agreement.
We have noticed that licensing terms are in nearly all cases not violated on purpose. Unintended violations typically occur because of unawareness of licensing terms and their meaning. If you have questions about licensing, please contact us.