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Selling free software
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 8:07 pm
by m3mn0n
I'm wondering does providing a free downloadable file on CD for a particular fee breaking any US/International copyright laws.
A friend of mine decided to take on this project where he would take the reviews he wrote on his site about various files and collect the best of each catagory and distribute them on CD. It would be complete with audio/video commentary and a complete review and instruction set of each file.
In this particular case I told him I didn't think it would be ilegal since he is providing a service, gathering files on disc, writing reviews, commentary and instructions, etc. And also it's not like the files on Kazaa where they are cracked versions and serials where the company is loosing money, it's just a free file.
But someone else told him that he is not allowed to sell the software, even if it's freely availible online because it is still copyrighted by the owners.
I'm just looking for more insight on this subject, can anyone bring some more arguements to the table?
Preferably some good hard evidence.
/me gets back to researching this subject
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 8:19 pm
by nielsene
It depends greatly on the license of the free software in question.
The safest thing to do would be to produce the cd with the reviews, commentary, and instructions and links to the source files. In some sense like any hard-copy reference/text book. There are a lot of security/hacking books on the market that talk about all the free tools. Often they just list the links to all the websites for these tools instead of providing a cd.
BSD/MIT licenses for example allow any use, including commericial. GPL is also safe to sell, as long as you make the source availible as required by the actual terms. Other F/OSS licenses I'm less familiar with. If all the code is licensed under one of these or is Public Domain, your friend should be fine. If you aren't sure what license a code script is under, then its definately not safe to assume its ok.
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 5:57 am
by m3mn0n
Thanks for your insight. One thing though; people hosts mirrors of downloads, and there isn't anything wrong with that. Wouldn't this be technically a mirror?...just another place to receive the file from? And since it's not consuming anyones bandwidth (companies server or the user) it would be saving time and money.
ugh, I've been reading dozens of different legal articles regarding this and it's a real pain searching for something like this (such a hard to describe topic). In most cases there is nothing regarding distributing software so I had to email the publishers.
/me continues the search for answers
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 8:47 am
by nielsene
Well mirrors don't cross the murky line of charging for the software. As I said before though, it really just depends on the license of the software in question. If your friend is gathering "Best-of-breed" scripts/tools from people to assemble a package and the number of tools is "reasonable" (like 10-20) he might be able to ask all the authors for permission, thereby making it totally legit.
There is no problem selling support, commentary, instructions (as long as their not just copied from the INSTALL file or something), etc for free software. Its when you bundle someone else's IP with your (your friend's) IP that you have to start being careful.
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 10:38 am
by ayron
normally, if the software is freeware or open source then it can be freely distributed as long as the copyrights, licenses and overall integrity of the software is maintained. Under these instances it is generally acceptible to charge a fee to cover the cost of distribution (ie CD, labour, download costs etc)
The best policy, however, is to check the license / copyright notice of each individual package to be distributed and when in doubt, ask the copyright owner for their permission. if explained properly to the copyright owner, most will probably allow fair use, especially if it gets them more exposure and wider distribution - especially shareware publishers.
WHEN IN DOUBT ASK!!

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 5:21 pm
by m3mn0n
Thanks guys. Along with some of the info I found Googlin' around this will be a great help to him.
