Open Source License

MicroShare Basic (MSB) is available under a dual licensing model: GPL or a Commercial License.

We are committed to the Open Source concept of software distribution thus MSB is available under the standard GNU - General Public License (GPLv2). If you use MSB and your application is also GPL compliant, there are neither licensing costs nor a need to contact BBSysco regarding your license.

Therefore, as long as your application is being released under GPL or is for private use, then the MicroShare Basic license price to you is as follows:

• The standard MSB GPL License fee for the first user is $0.00
• The license fee for users 2 through 50 when purchased individually or together is $0.00
• Users over 50 are available at half the standard MSB GPL license fee
• The upgrade fee for multiple servers is 20% of the $0.00 base license fee
• Deep discounts are available for large scale GPL users. Contact sales for details.

In short -- if it falls under GPL it's free.

Our goal in offering a GPL license is provide the tools required for you to create and distribute your own GPL licensed open source applications. MSB source is freely available on our website either as download or through our online source control (CVS) viewing system.

In addition, MicroShare Basic is free to use for any individual or business provided they do not distribute their MSB based application or code. In effect, if you are using MSB to power you own in-house or private application, you are free to use it regardless of whether your application itself is covered by GPL or not.

Note that for some applications and businesses, the terms of the GNU - General Public License (GPLv2) may not be desirable. In this case, you may want to consider a commercial license, which allows you to use and distribute MSB with your application under terms similar to what you would expect from a commercial vendor.

Some Basic GPL Conditions:

While this is not a complete list, here are some of the main aspects of when you can use MSB under the terms of the GPL with your application.

• All applications that use the GPL licensed MicroShare Basic must also be licensed under the GPL (v2 or later).
• You may not use the GPL license of MSB to run an application or software that you did not create yourself and was not or is not covered by a GPL license. A commercial license is required to run applications obtained under other than a GPL license.
• All GPL Licensed applications or software products must provide the complete source code of their product.
• You may modify and distribute MSB source code as long as any distributed derivative work is licensed under the GPL.
• You may copy and distribute the MSB binary files (executive kernel and/or MSB program files) however; these copies will continue to fall under the terms of the GPL license.
• You may use the GPL license in-house in the development on non-GPL applications as long the distribution of these applications is done under a commercial license.

The complete terms of the GPLv2 can be found at http://www.gnu.org
(as of the date of this document the full text can be found at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html )

Academic Institutions, Private Individuals, and Non-profit Organizations:

Non-profit organizations or academic institutions that publish applications as an open source / free software project under the terms of the GPL license are free to use MSB at no charge under the GPL license. MSB itself can be used and distributed free of charge when used for educational purposes.

Private individuals are free to use MSB for personal applications that are for private use and that are not distributed. If a private individual distributes their application, they must either adhere to the terms of the GPL license or acquire a commercial license from Business Basic Systems Corporation.

A commercial license would also be required to distribute free demo versions of any application that it itself is not distributed under GPL.

Support and Technical Assistance:

BBSysco provides both support and technical assistance, as a service, to companies and or individuals using either the GPL licensed or commercial licensed versions of MicroShare Basic. These services may be billable.

GPL v3 and Beyond:

Currently, we are reviewing version 3 of the GNU General Public License. It is our intent to move to this newer version of the GPL license in the future, as it becomes commonly adopted.

In general, if you are distributing an application that uses MSB and has a commercial value, you will require a commercial license but if you are not certain we would glad to assist you in evaluating which type of license is most appropriate for you to use.