OSL 3.0 Questions related for commercial use

[Big Diddy]

Hi,

first of all. I have posted this originally in the prestashop forums but it seems that the moderators have ignored it -.-' 
Later I found thirty bees and I'm currently have the same questions ^^.

 

Sorry If I not found the right topic for this or I'm maybe a little bit too stupid about the meaning and usage of prestashop/thirty bees with OSL 3.0 license. 

I mean, i have found some informations but I cannot believe that they are true...  

The main questions are: When and how i must share the code with customers or to general publicity?

 

Scenario 1:

I'm using thirty bees as it comes and just configuring it. Maybe there are some modifications on styles/layout to the default template. Does it matter (from license site) if I modify the template directly or just coping and doing my stuff there? 

 

Scenario 2:

I need to customize some core functions and will modify php files of the core and maybe core modules (3rd party modules could have another licenses?)

 

When and how I have to publish the source? (including my modifications?).

I mean. Do i need to upload it e.g. on GitHub and have to link it on my site? We are facing german market. Is there anything other/special?

How other prestashops/thiry bees handle it? 

I hope anyone can help me, thanks!

best regards

[haylau]

Once you install thirty bees (or Prestashop) it is yours to use as you wish. You can modify whatever you want and no need to tell anyone. I have loads of local modifications  You do not have to publish the modified code anywhere

[Big Diddy]

Thanks for fast reply but I'm maybe a little bit confused because I found some posts related to OSL 3.0.

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/2945/does-osl-3-0-require-user-access-to-source-if-i-sell-access-to-it-as-saas

Is there another scenario or why it differs from personal shop? 

This is exactly the point I already mentioned originally. I cannot believe that this is true but I would like to know/understand the difference.

Does it only matters If I "fork" Prestashop/thirty bees and want to publish it as a custom product/system/service?

[haylau]

I am not sure i understand you .

Are you asking :

1) As a seller / merchant who wants to use thirtybees to sell products (virtual or real) to customers? If this is the case then forget about the licence, you can do what you want

Or

2) As a developer who wants to sell the thirtybees code / develop modules for sale? If this is the case then tit is beyond my knowledge

[Big Diddy]

4 minutes ago, haylau said:

I am not sure i understand you .

Are you asking :

1) As a seller / merchant who wants to use thirtybees to sell products (virtual or real) to customers? If this is the case then forget about the licence, you can do what you want

Or

2) As a developer who wants to sell the thirtybees code / develop modules for sale? If this is the case then tit is beyond my knowledge

thanks! It is definitly the first one 🙂

I don't know if there is a license problem/difference when I'm just "using" the shop or customize source code for my own needs.
For example. Modifying core or modules like payment or something else.

I already thought this but haven't found informations about that to confirm it for me ^^.

I need to say that I haven't paid a lot attention for open source project licenses because I just "played" around and never had a plan to publish something.
 

Licenses are in generally not my strength 😄 and I want to clarify things before I start to publish something.

Thanks again!

[haylau]

Forget the licence. If you are using the software as a seller / merchant (option 1) then you can just get on with it. In this instance open source only means that you can alter the code if you want to, but there is no need to tell anyone. Just do it. Set up your shop, and start selling

[Traumflug]

You shouldn't modify files coming with the distribution at all. First choice to tweak functionality is to use hooks, this is the most maintainable way. If this doesn't work, one can use overrides.

Common to each of these strategies is that you add files rather than modifying existing ones. Which removes the license question, you can put these files under any license you like, including "proprietary".

That said, if you fix bugs or enhance code in a way interesting for all merchants, it's always a good idea to feed them back to the project. This eases future updates a lot and gives you free maintenance for these changes.

[datakick]

OSL 3.0 is definitely not ideal license for e-commerce.

Section 1c) grants you rights 

Quote

to distribute or communicate copies of the Original Work and Derivative Works to the public, with the proviso that copies of Original Work or Derivative Works that You distribute or communicate shall be licensed under this Open Software License;

And section 5) says that 

Quote

5) External Deployment. The term "External Deployment" means the use, distribution, or communication of the Original Work or Derivative Works in any way such that the Original Work or Derivative Works may be used by anyone other than You, whether those works are distributed or communicated to those persons or made available as an application intended for use over a network. As an express condition for the grants of license hereunder, You must treat any External Deployment by You of the Original Work or a Derivative Work as a distribution under section 1(c).

Together, these two sections means that you must disclose source code of all and any modifications, once your server is reachable by public. The license does not specify the mechanism to disclose the source code. You don't have to be proactive, I believe it is sufficient to disclose it on per-request basis (put some info about this to TOS or similar page).  Most likely nobody will ever ask you to disclose the source code 🙂

Of course, it's pretty hard (practically impossible) to prove that you are using modified version of thirty bees. You could always claim that you are using overrides or hooks to alter the functionality. 

And you should ALWAYS use overrides or hooks, never touch core files. That always result in huge headache few months (years) later.

[Crafter]

Open source licences can be confusing, but not more than commercial licences.

There a few guideline you need to be aware of, without the legalese, that will hold for most, in no order.

Don't deny others the rights that you had. For example, you had access to the source code, you need to tell others where they can access the source code from.

You don't own the code that others wrote, so don't pretend to. You might be able to own the additional code, enhancements and fixes, but in general, the code you got from the public domain will always belong there.

With most licences, if you distribute the software (for example for download), you have to make the changes available under an acceptable licence. This may differ from licence to license.

 

[Big Diddy]

Thanks a lot at all!

This makes it more cleary for me and many thanks to the hint with the hooks 🙂