Open Source Asked by M. Ali Iftikhar on December 28, 2021
Open source licenses e.g. GPL, MIT etc always has a clause about how they should be treated when "Distributing" the code that they are used in.
If I use an open source library in one of my web applications, and "deploy" my application to web server (on internal network or on a public cloud e.g. azure, aws) and then the end users uses my web application using their browsers over the internet or intranet (weather they pay for this service to me or not), am I "distributing" ? do I now have to be complaint with the "distribution" clause?
For example if the "distribution" clause says I need to include the license if I am distributing the application. So now that I have hosted my application on the public internet, do I have to host all the open source package licenses (obtained from npm, nuget etc) along with my hosted application?
My understanding with "distribution" was that "distribution" mean when I am distributing the binaries of my software. And this distribution does not mean distributing as in copying to my own hosting environment for deployment. I see distribution would mean me selling my application binaries. That would be when I sell (sell or for free) my application’s source code to some one else, at that time I need to include the open source licenses along with the my application source code.
Your understanding about distribution being conveying the source or binaries to others is accurate in general. Licenses like the Affero GPL were created to close this "loophole." However, it's considered good etiquette to make an acknowledgement of the software you include, and to upstream or otherwise publish the changes you make to open source software, even if you are not legally required to do so.
Answered by Karl Bielefeldt on December 28, 2021
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