I have written a small Java program which i\'d like to distribute on my website.
ID: 660045 • Letter: I
Question
I have written a small Java program which i'd like to distribute on my website. I have used a few external librarys which declare following licences: Apache License (2.0), LGPL and one API doesn't declare any licence.. It's open source though.
I have spent a lot of time and effort developing my program. That's why I thought of distributing the software so that only donators (no matter how much or little they donate) can use it to it's fullest extent. Non donators get to see a nag screen now and then with a suggestion to donate and can only download one file at a time instead of simultanious downloads. (Yeah my program does some downloading)
Can I do that without getting legal issues? On one hand I would like to distribute the complete source of my project but on the other hand that would render the limitation of functions for non-donators useless, because they could simply remove the part with the serial nr check and redistribute my software..
Under what licence should i distribute my program?
Explanation / Answer
First of all: You shouldn't lie your "costumers". If only donators can use all features, its not a donation, its a regular payment.
LGPL stricly allows to be used in non-free applications, Apache License I don't know. At least you should clear the API license. Just to say "Its open source" doesn't tell you, what you are allowed to do with it. Mail the maintainer and ask him.
Of course I don't know your application. Maybe you can split it into to parts, where one is published under an OSS-license and the other part is the paid one.