Tips on picking right OSS license : ZDNet

Our director Sachin Dabir was quoted in ZDNet article on ‘Tips on picking right OSS license”

Freedom to innovate, distribute
Sachin Dabir, chairman of the OSS for innovation and collaboration special interest group (SIG) at the Singapore Computer Society (SCS), recommended that developers and companies building and releasing software under OSS licensing consider the extent of freedom they need to further innovate and distribute the software.
For example, they will need to figure out if the software license allows the source codes to be used in closed source projects, or whether the software can be sold commercially, Dabir explained.
GNU GPL license, for one, encourages the work and derivatives of the OSS to be kept under the same license and the source codes to be distributed along with it. It does not allow the source codes to be used in proprietary software projects, he noted.
Monetization opportunities
Dabir also pointed out that the commercialization or monetization model for the software determines the type of license to use. This would mean identifying whether the software is meant to be shared within the open source community, or if it is closed and to be used for commercial purposes, he said.

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