From memory, you can do whatever you like to GPL'd software as long as you dont redistribute it. If you need to redistribute it, you must also release the source code to people you sell it to. Yes, you're allowed to sell it, however it must be done under the GPL, which means that your customers can also sell it, give it away, or whatever they like. You would have no control over this.

However, as an ASP, you're probably not going to redistribute it anyway, as it will be staying on your server.

It would be polite, though not required, to release the source to any modifications you make back to the mailman developers so that they can include any enhancements you create in future versions.

Go read the GPL. It's available at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt

Enjoy. May the source be with you. (and all that crap.)

Shannon McCormick wrote:

Hi,

My name is Shannon McCormick and I am a member of the technology team @ 4charity http://www.4charity.com. We are an Application Service Provider (ASP) for the Non-Profit industry. We are currently developing a Email List Management product that we will make available to our customers. We are interested in using Mailman as the underlying email engine for sending messages and handling bounces. We are building the entire user interface and managing/storing the list, message and user information ourselves. We will be charging our customers by some metric to use our product. What license is Mailman covered by (I believe it is the GNU GPL)? Does Mailman's license allow it to be used in this capacity?

Thank you, Shannon

Shannon McCormick 4charity.com 55 Merchant Street, Suite 2028 Honolulu, HI 96813 USA direct: 808.585.6164 cell: 808.781.6974 fax: 808.585.7394 mailto:shannon@4charity.com http://www.4charity.com

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Mailman-Users maillist - Mailman-Users@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users

-- Téo de Hesselle Email Administrator

Information Technology Division University of Technology, Sydney

Hi,

Hi, Shannon.

My name is Shannon McCormick and I am a member of the technology team @ 4charity http://www.4charity.com. We are an Application Service Provider (ASP) for the Non-Profit industry. We are currently developing a Email List Management product that we will make available to our customers. We are interested in using Mailman as the underlying email engine for sending messages and handling bounces. We are building the entire user interface and managing/storing the list, message and user information ourselves. We will be charging our customers by some metric to use our product. What license is Mailman covered by (I believe it is the GNU GPL)? Does Mailman's license allow it to be used in this capacity?

It seems that you are asking for legal advice. I think that the best thing to do would be to have your legal department look at the GPL. You wouldn't really rely (or bet your business) on legal advice from a bunch of hackers, would you?

Anyway, I think you would be fine. I charge for services based on Free Software all the time.

-Peter