Something that may help clarify your thinking is that for the OSI-approved Free-OSS licenses, usage isn't what's being governed. The big trigger issue is redistribution and what happens when someone redistributes your code - especially commercial redistribution. Here are some examples: Example A) You make FooProg and use the GPL. A company takes FooProg, makes changes and improvements, and redistributes it (sells it or, or bundles it with something else they sell). They have to publish their changes to Foo_Prog, and FooProg must stay GPL'd. Even if they changed FooProg's name to FooProg2, FooProg2 must be GPL'd and they must publish sources. (I think this example is why LinkSys was forced to publish their sources for the routers back in the day. They used GPL sources and got caught.) Example B) You make FooProg and use the GPL. A company picks it up, tweaks it, and make it available for internal use. They have not legally redistributed your code, and do not have to publish the changes. It's the same as you playing around with changes to GPL'd software in your own home - you don't have to share those changes. Example C) You make a library and use the LGPL. A company uses it to provide functionality in a product. If I understand correctly, their product does not have to be (L)GPL'd, but they likely must make the sources to the library available publicly. Example D) You make a library and use the BSD license. A company picks it up, makes some changes to it and uses it in a product they sell. I don't think they have to publish their changes in this instance, nor must their product be licensed with the BSD license either. Note - I'm a little fuzzier on the BSD license, though to echo what someone wrote earlier generally companies are okay with approach Open Source Software if it's BSD, and are very wary of GPL'd software when it comes to product development. Standard I'm not a lawyer disclaimers apply - but you can see how the intent of the BSD and GPL licenses differ. The GPL wants to keep your software where everyone can benefit from it and wants to prevent it from being co-opted - that was Stallman's focus. The BSD is more like "Here's some stuff. Use it, play with it, whatever...." -Rob -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20110711/c33afd9e/attachment.html>