Re: PHP License

On Mon, Sep 16, 2019, at 1:52 AM, Zareef Ahmed wrote: > Hi Ashkar, > > PHP License applied to PHP source code and binaries. It is not applied > to applications you have created using PHP. > > Let me try to answer your questions. > > *Can you sell applications written using PHP?* > > Yes, you can. You can even encrypt your code using many third-party > encoders available. > > *Is it legal to prevent the buyer from reselling it?* > > Yes, It is perfectly legal to prevent buyer from reselling it. (At > least legally), on technically front, you may need to do lots of other > work to prevent such activities. Encryption of code is one of them. > > *How PHP License is applicable?* > > PHP license is only applicable if you are bundling PHP source code with > it. For example, it can be applicable to applications like WAMP or XAMP > because they have PHP code with it, but it can not be applicable to > PHPMyAdmin. PHPMyAdmin has been written in PHP Language, it does not > ship PHP source code with it. This is all correct, but... > We also need to understand that earlier PHP was released under GPL > license which is kind of restrictive about such activities, at a later > stage, a better open-source approach (Apache style) license was > adopted. The PHP license is NOT Apache-style as it has no patent clause. It's a BSD/MIT style license with the added "name usage" caveat. To call such licenses "a better open source approach" is also incorrect. Unless you are defining "Better open source" to mean "easier for commercial entities to exploit without sharing back to the community, so they just get free labor", which is a rather poor way to define it (although the corporations that encourage MIT style over GPL do so for precisely that reason). They are "permissive licenses", in that they impose fewer restrictions on the developer at the cost of sacrificing protections for the end-user. Were the PHP engine itself still under the GPL, it would still not impact code you write in PHP. That can be in whatever license you like. (However, I would strongly encourage you to use the GPLv3 or AGPLv3 for your own code, as those are the only licenses that protect the end user from abuse. On the web, even the GPL only sort of does so, and AGPL is better for that.) --Larry Garfield