Posted by strayhand on July 22, 2008 at 3:24am
I want to use Drupal as a paid service for building Web sites and communities. The Drupal instances and modules would reside on my server. So basically I would be acting as an Application Service Provider. If I pursue this endeavor I will likely end up using the Drupal core, some contributed modules, and several custom modules.
Does the GLP License require me to make available any of my custom modules, configurations or patches made to Drupal?
It seems like question #11 of the FAQ kind of addresses this issue and that it does not require me to make the code available. But I wanted to be clear.
Comments
Modules
No since you are not distributing the modules, you are only using them in house. It's always nice to share some of it though :)
Think of it like communism
Think of it like communism haha, do your part :p but yeah you will be fine your selling a service, not really Drupal its-self.
Tj Holowaychuk
Vision Media - Victoria BC Web Design
Victoria British Columbia Web Design School
Tj Holowaychuk
Vision Media - Victoria BC Web Design
Victoria British Columbia Web Design School
This group isn't really the
This group isn't really the right place for that question. It's probably better off in the Services forum, the Paid Drupal services forum, the Consulting mail list or the #drupal-consultants IRC channel.
Cross-posting to the other
Cross-posting to the other forums you mention is a good idea but this is definitely the right place to ask this question.
No distribution
If you hold the copyright to the code you write (it's not work-for-hire) and you never distribute it beyond your own company / your own servers, then you are not distributing anything in a legal sense and therefore you are under no legal obligation to distribute your code.
As goosemoose said, however, if they're worthwhile modules then you should contribute them back to the community anyway. You get free CVS hosting and bug tracking, an army of people to help find and fix bugs, and all around good karma for sharing-alike. :-)
See FAQ #8, which addresses this question more directly.
Thanks guys. I agree that
Thanks guys.
I agree that there is real value in contributing the code back to the community. I just wanted to know what I was legally obligated to before I got started.