InfinityMQ/InfinityMQ — Issue #1: License
Author: jgoz
Created: 2012-01-25 21:43:38+00:00
State: open
Labels: Task, ★★★

We should pick an open source license for IMQ (∞MQ?).

Options:

* [LGPL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License) — allows for dynamic linking in proprietary code, but disallows modification and re-distribution under more a more permissive license. Any forks or derived works would have to remain LGPL or transition to GPL.
* [AGPL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_GPL) — similar to LGPL, but if users run a custom fork on a server (i.e., used, but not explicitly distributed), they are required to release their modifications under a compatible license.
* [Apache](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_License) — unlike *GPL, does not require modified versions to be distributed with the same license. In theory, this would allow someone to sell modified, closed-source versions of IMQ as long as they retained the original Apache NOTICE file with our names in it. At least, that is my non-lawyer understanding.
* [MIT](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_license) or [BSD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_license) — similar to Apache, in that modified versions can be distributed/sold with any license as long as the original copyright notice with our names is maintained.

ZeroMQ uses a modified LGPL that also allows static linking to proprietary code, but this doesn't really apply in .NET land.

MongoDB uses AGPL for the database itself and Apache for the drivers. 10gen also sells commercial licenses for the database for those who need to tweak but don't want to release their changes.

I'm leaning toward either LGPL or AGPL. What are your thoughts?