Need to understand python license

Roy Smith roy at panix.com
Wed Jul 27 11:44:05 EDT 2005


I'm looking into the possibility of getting my employer to use Python
as an embedded scripting language.  A big issue is licensing; we can't
use anything that's GPL-like, because that would make us release our
source code.  Obviously, our lawyers will have the final say, but I'm
looking for a rough idea, to see if this is even worth pursuing.  I've
read the copyright statement, and it sounds good to me, but I'm hardly
an expert in this stuff.

What I've been told is, "Basically, you want something with a
Berkeley-like license, or an Apache 1.1-like license".  I know that
Java's license has been deemed acceptable, but Perl's has not.  We
ship Perl, but for stand-alone support stuff, not embedded in the core
product.

Where does Python fit into the GPL-Apache-Berkeley license spectrum?
Specifically, can we take the Python interpreter source code, modify
it, compile it, staticly link it into our binaries, ship it to our
paying customers, and still retain the right to not show anybody our
source?



More information about the Python-list mailing list