Beware licensing issues when using open source

By _EDN Blogs

March 30, 2015

Many developers have the misconception that open source software is free for them to do with as they wish. But the reality is that any form of intellectual property belongs to its creator, who controls the transfer of usage rights to others. So if you're using open source building blocks when designing something for sale, you have to know about its associated license.

A creator's ownership and right to control usage of their creation is a part of most legal systems. This is as true for the writer of software as it is for the writer of a novel. Such usage rights are usually articulated in the form of a license. The only difference between open source code and purchased code lies in the terms of the license agreements under which code was made available for use. So when you use open source code, you are still agreeing to abide by a usage license of one kind or another.

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