QUestion regarding open source licences.

ARGINITE

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, mod move as you see fit.

Now down to buisness.
I am thinking of using a piece of open source code as a starting point for my M.Eng. The one problem I have with this is that it [the software I develop during the course of my masters] will be used as a comerical produce. I'm not very good when it comes to open source law and dont seem to be able to find an answer to my question.

If I use said piece of open source code will that cause the entire project to become open source and not a commerical product?

Could somebody on this forum possible give me an answer or even point me in the direction of some resource where I could get one?

Here is the licence belonging to the piece of open source code:

TagCentric/Ubiquity License
Copyright © 2007 by Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas. All rights reserved.

Developed by: Ubiquity/TagCentric Middleware Team, Computer Science and Computer
Engineering Department, University of Arkansas http://tag-centric.sourceforge.net/.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the Ubiquity and TagCentric software releases and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal with the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

* Redistributions of source code or documentation must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

* Neither the names of Ubiquity/TagCentric Middleware Team, Computer Science and
Computer Engineering Department, University of Arkansas, nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this Software without specific prior written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE CONTRIBUTORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
DEALINGS WITH THE SOFTWARE.

TagCentric and Ubiquity software covered in this license does not include commercially
developed RFID tag reader and tag printer device drivers and ODBC or JDBC database drivers
that are distributed with this software but that are governed by their own licenses as described in
the file licenses-related.doc in the top level directory of this distribution. TagCentric and
Ubiquity licensees must separately read and agree to these separate licenses in order to use the
included drivers. Your use of TagCentric or Ubiquity does not create or purport to create any
obligations for the developers of these driver programs nor does it grant or purport to grant any
intellectual property or proprietary rights with respect to these driver programs.

oscarBravo

Looks like a pretty open license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the Ubiquity and TagCentric software releases and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal with the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

Basically this seems to say "do what you want with this, including distributing and selling it. The conditions are not onerous:

* Redistributions of source code or documentation must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Basically, you have to include the copyright notice, conditions and disclaimers when you distribute the commercial derivative. If you can do so, you should be cool.

That said, for a commercial product I'd get someone legal to read it. You don't want it to bite you after the fact.

It's instructive to read the GPL and see exactly how it does tie you in the way you're worried about. That should help clarify the difference.

monkey tennis

oscarBravo wrote: »

That said, for a commercial product I'd get someone legal to read it. You don't want it to bite you after the fact.

You might also contact the licenser and clarify it with them.

deRanged

Don't forget that if you develop code while registered as a student you may not own the IP, exclusively or otherwise. Your college should have a tech transfer office or similar that can advise you on the legalities.

(it's unlikely that the college will have an objection to someone making money as long as they get their cut)

ARGINITE

oscarBravo, monkey tennis, deRanged.
Thanks for the input. I guess it time to ask the creators or a professional.

deRanged

I should also have pointed out yesterday that Enterprise Ireland would probably be very interested in a 3rd level research project with commercialisation possibilities. They have a range of support products for people in research looking to go commercial (ranging from legal|business advice to startup space and so on). I'd give you a link to their website but it seems to be off-line at the minute.

They're usually very helpful people so it would be well worth giving them a call (as well as the tech transfer people in your college).

ARGINITE

Thanks deRanged, EI are kindly funding me at present
The IP that comes from my research will belong to the company and college that I am working with. Anyways I'm not worth a monkeys at the commerical side of things.