Re: Project Question
Florent Broise writes ("Project Question"):
> My name is Broise Florent, I've got a project to develop a concept of a
> media center device for high fidelity audio ernthusiast.
>
> I want to know if it's possible to develop this project on a Debian base,
> and so to know if I can (and will be legal regards to your oragnisation) to
> sell my concept device to customers.
If you use only software in Debian "main" (not in "non-free" or
"contrib") then yes, you may develop your product on top of it and
sell the proof of concept device to your customers. There is no
problem with charging money for the device (nor for distributing the
software).
Note that you will need to provide your customers with the source code
for the Debian parts, along with the appropriate copyright licence
notices. Your customers must be allowed to modify and redistribute
the version of Debian that you give them.
Depending which parts of Debian you use in your application and how
your application uses them, it may be necessary for you to provide the
source code for your own application, again under a Free Software
licence. You should consult the licences for any libraries (and
programming languages) you choose to use and distribute.
> Beside, I will maybe depose a patent on this project in France, if the
> concept gain more demands.
Depending on the circumstances, this may well be a problem. It
depends on which libraries and tools etc. your application uses from
Debian and how it integrates with Debian.
Note that neither I nor Jonas Smedegaard are (in general) in a
position to grant you permission. Permission either already exists
(in the licences of the various software in Debian) or has to be
obtained from the copyrightholders of the individual parts of Debian.
So neither my nor Jonas's message should be read as a permission or a
licence.
Jonas and I are not laywers and are not giving legal advice. We are
trying to help you out with our lay understanding of the position.
Ian.
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