No Excel, please
The world of open-source licenses can seem complex, but the reality for a business using our curated solutions is very simple. This article will briefly explain the common, business-friendly licenses you'll encounter in our solutions, so you can have complete peace of mind.
The Key Takeaway, Right Up Front
Before we dive in, here’s the most important point: The licenses for the software we select and implement for your business all explicitly permit commercial use. The specific obligations within them are almost always aimed at software developers who modify and re-distribute the code, not at businesses who use the software for their day-to-day operations.
Two Main Flavours of License: "Permissive" vs. "Share-Alike"
Open-source licenses generally fall into two broad categories. This is useful background knowledge.
- Permissive Licenses: These are highly flexible. They essentially say, "You can do almost anything you want with this software, and you don't have to share your own modifications." (Examples: MIT, Apache 2.0).
- Share-Alike (or "Copyleft") Licenses: These say, "You can do almost anything, but if you modify the code and then distribute it to others, you must share your changes under the same license." (Example: AGPLv3).
Now, let's look at the specific licenses for the software we use.
The MIT License
- In a Nutshell: The most simple and permissive license out there.
- What it Means for You (The Business User): It's completely hassle-free. You can use software under the MIT license for any purpose, including running your entire commercial operation, without any restrictions or obligations.
The Apache License 2.0
- In a Nutshell: Another very permissive and popular business-friendly license.
- What it Means for You (The Business User): Like the MIT license, you can use software under the Apache 2.0 license freely for any commercial purpose. It also includes clauses about patents that are designed to protect users like you from legal claims, which is a positive feature.
The Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0)
- In a Nutshell: A "middle-ground" license that balances permissive and share-alike elements.
- What it Means for You (The Business User): The "share-alike" rules only apply to developers who modify the original source code files. For a business simply using the software, it functions just like a permissive license. You can use it for any commercial purpose without issue.
The GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3)
- In a Nutshell: A strong "share-alike" license specifically designed for software that runs over a network (like most modern web applications).
- What it Means for You (The Business User): This is the license that is most often misunderstood, so it’s important to be clear. The license's main obligation is that if you modify the source code and then allow others outside your organisation to interact with your modified version over a network, you must make your modified code available.
For your business, this obligation is not triggered. You are using the software for your own internal operations, not modifying and re-distributing it as a service. This is a standard and well-understood use case that does not require you to share anything. It is perfectly safe to use for your CRM, HR system, or any other internal business application.
Conclusion: Our Expertise is Your Peace of Mind
Navigating software licenses can seem daunting, but it's a core part of our expertise.
We have carefully selected applications with licenses that are robust, well-regarded, and entirely appropriate for commercial use in a small or medium-sized business. We ensure the technology foundation we build for you is not only powerful and affordable but also legally sound.
You can focus on running your business, confident that the "rules of the road" for your software have been handled correctly.