Cellular Network Infrastructure

h1. Software Licensing

h2. [[OpenBSC]] executable programs

The following notes apply to software described on this wiki, developed as part of the Osmocom project.

Specifically, it applies to [[OpenBSC]], osmo-bsc, osmo-sgsn, gb_proxy, ipaccess-config, bsc_nat, bsc_mgcp, ...

For reasons of simplicity, we always call it _OpenBSC_ here.

*OpenBSC is copyrighted software like any other computer program.  In order to use [[OpenBSC]], you need

a license from the copyright holders.*

If you do not arrange for a different license with the copyright holders, the software ships with a

default license: The "AGPLv3":http://fsf.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html (GNU Affero General Public License, Version 3).

h4. General idea behind the License

The general idea behind our licensing model is as follows:  You receive the full source code of

the [[OpenBSC]] software and can use it like you see fit, *but* we require you to release the

source code of any modifications or derivative work you create.

With AGPL, it does not matter whether you ever distribute the [[OpenBSC]] software.  As soon as you

provide a GSM network using [[OpenBSC]], all users are entitled to receive a copy of the license text

and the _complete corresponding source code_ of the very version you are using to run the GSM network with.

h3. Alternative Licenses / Dual Licensing

If you do not agree to the abovementioned conditions, you may contact the copyright holders and apply for

an alternative license.  Business details will depend on your intended use case, size of the installation, ...

h2. libosmocore

<pre>

"GNU GPL Version 2, or any later version".  This means at the time of this writing, you can license them

under either "GPLv2":http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html or "GPLv3":http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html.

As both GPLv2 and GPLv3 are _strong copyleft_ licenses, it means that creating a derivative work of

the library and an executable program will require that executable program to be under the same GPL version.

If you use the libraries together with the Osmocom executable programs (see above), then libosmocore

will be licensed under GPLv3, which is compatible with the AGPLv3 of the executable programs.

h2. Questions

If you have any questions regarding the licenses used in the Osmocom project, please contact the project

authors *before* you create any kind of product or a derivative work.