Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Non-commercial licenses
===Non-commercial licenses===
Some ostensibly "free and open-source" software licenses include, or can be modified to include, an extra provision that's designed to prevent the software from being used for any commercial purposes, e.g. the sale of software and/or hardware to turn a profit. Since this is a fairly explicit example of restricting who can use a piece of software and for what purpose, it does technically disqualify '''disqualifies the software in question from being considered free and/or open-sourceFLOSS''', even if the developer still makes the source code readily available to the public.
The Free Software Foundation explains [https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html#selling here], as part of their "What is free software" page:
"Free software" does not mean "noncommercial". On the contrary, a free program must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and commercial distribution. This policy is of fundamental importance—without this, free software could not achieve its aims. [...] We must conclude that a program licensed with such restrictions does not qualify as free software.
</blockquote>
The Open Source Initiative also considers explains why non-commercial licensing to go goes [https://opensource.org/osd against the very definition of "open source"]:
<blockquote>
'''6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor'''
