Using Community edition for customer websites

[tonyf]

Hi,

We do not curently use Alfresco.  We are a company that creates commerical websites for our customers, these sites are used to transact their business, they are not simple broucherware sites.  Currently all changes to the sites are carried out internally by our web developers.  We want to be able to provide our customers with the ability to make changes to certain parts of their sites using a CMS, we may charge them for this service.

We are looking at using Alfrsco community edition for this, we don't intend to change the Alfresco source code for this.

I've read through the licensing documentation and think our proposed usage is ok, but I want to be sure I am interpretting the term "distribution" correctly, as the software will be running in our hosted environment, we won't be distributing it to our customers in the traditional sense of the word, but we are providing access to the software for our customers.

I've called the alfresco support number for the UK and am awaiting a call, but I thought I'd try here whilst I was waiting.

Thanks,

Tony

[tonyf]

I really need to get an answer on this, is anyone from Alfresco able to comment?

Thanks,

Tony.

[mrogers]

I agree that it's probably O.K.   (However I'm writing as a community member here, in particular I'm not qualified to give a Legal opinion.)

[tonyf]

@ mrogers,

Thanks for the reply, appreciated.  Could you point me at someone who could provide a legally informed response to my query please?  I understand your focus is the Enterprise version, but I'd be interested to know who looks after the legal stuff such as this for the community edition.

Tony.

[kaplansa]

With a slight twist, my business currently creates webparts and extensions to Sharepoint and we sell those webparts for profit.  I'm considering moving from Sharepoint to Alfresco. 

1) Is the Alfresco EULA more Joomla-like where my extensions become part of the public domain and it becomes questionable if I can sell them or not?  Or is the EULA more DotNetNuke like where I can sell them no problem?

2) Also, I would like to bundle Alfresco with my custom extensions for customers that don't already have an Alfresco install.  DNN lets me give the DNN core away and sell my modules.  I read above an issue with "giving away" the Alfresco core.  I don't plan on modifying Alfresco out-of-the-box AT ALL, just providing additional modules on top.  Is there a licensing restriction that prevents me from being able to do this?  Provide a customer an Alfresco install (for free) and my custom extensions (for a charge) and charge for my labor to install all of the above?

Thanks!

[mrogers]

Your webparts and extensions are yours to do with as you see fit.    So you can choose whether to open - source them or not.

You are not allowed to distribute or bundle Alfresco,  if you want to do that you will need an OEM licence for Alfresco.    By all means charge for your labour, but you are not allowed to charge for software that has been provided to you for free.

[tonyf]

@mrogers
But if kaplansa provides a unedited copy of Alfresco and does not charge for it, is that ok? 

It's an interesting point with open source software that I have to deal with frequently; wanting to provide it to our customers without changing it in any way so that we can then sell them our own programs which link to the open source product in some way, not necessary in the traditional library definition of linking, but in some way where our closed source items use it, for instance by calling a service running on a server which is licensed using open source code.

What's the difference between a company installing alfresco (or any other open source program) from a CD they have provided to the customer and them downloading it directly onto the customer's system when they install the rest of their products?

Sorry for straying off topic

[kaplansa]

@TonyF

You're spot on target actually.  The term "bundling" is confusing.  I'm basically a consultant so it's not like I'm selling a shrink-wrapped piece of software, which I'm hoping is what "bundling" means.  The real-world scenario is that I walk into a client's office with a thumb drive with Alfresco and my custom modules on it, and then I proceed to sit down in front of their computer and install all the above.  Is that "bundling" in this sense?  We're not really suggesting that I can't walk into a client's office with Alfresco in my hands, but rather have to require they download it prior?