Question

I have web site developed with Grails. On the site there is google adsense and links to amazon. I would like to open source the implementation of the web site but I am not sure if I would still be able to ‘make money’ using adsense.

So question is, if I open source the code behind the web site am I still able to run google adsense on the web site?

My feeling is that this is possible with e.g. LGPL license but is it also possible with GPL license?

Thanks

Answer 1

1. You can release your code under any license to others. That does not automatically apply the same license to you. However, if you release your code under GPL and you accept contributions, any branch of the code that contains these contributions is GPL licensed to you. That’s one of the reasons Sun for example requires the copiright for any contribution to MySQL to be assigned to them, so that they do not fall under the GPL license and be able to dual-license MySQL.

2. GPL license applies only to your code, not the data processed with that code. If you are writing CMS for example, you can GPL the source code, yet the published content is under whatever license the author has chosen. To that effect, AdSense is a content, so GPL should not apply to it.

3. In broad sense, licensing a product under GPL does not prohibit anyone from selling that product for money. All it states is that the licensee must make the source code available for free (or a small charge to cover expenses if sending it on CD, but no profit) to whoever gets the end product as well.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. You should talk to a copyright lawyer for the actual legal implications of licensing something under GPL.