hey i wanted to know if u can sell OPEN-SOURCE programs?

Question

hey i wanted to know if u can sell open-source programs for free...do u have to distibute it or something..if yea then wat is that..can someone explain.....or can i just sell any open-source program willy nilly like...for example open office 2.2 found on download.com.....

Answer 1

Many open source programs are distributed under copyleft (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft ) or the GPL (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gpl ), both of which have specific requirements regarding what can be sold and what must be given freely.

Answer 2

Nope, u can't sell an Open Source program by itself but you can sell programs out of an Open Source softwares or a product of an open source which you develop by yourself. Say, you develop an Accounting system using PHP, PERL and mySQL which are all open source softwares, and you can sell the Accounts System but not the open source that created it.

Answer 3

You can't sell Open Office by itself.

However, if you're thinking about packaging it a bit differently and throw in a lot of other programs and sell it for $50, people already beat you to it.

http://www.epinions.com/content_131113979524

Answer 4

http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
As stated before, there are guidelines to how open source is distributed. I've seen people selling Open Office on EBay. I don't know if it's illegal, but it certainly seems unethical.