Selling a Pi and software licencing issues
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:44 pm
Hi all,
I'm toying with the idea of building a commercial "thing" with a Pi at it's core. It will run custom software all written by me but will still use Rasbian underneath. Although I don't plan to build an empire from this, I do want to at least cover running costs and maintain a small profit margin.
So, a couple of questions that I'm finding hard to answer by googling.
a) can I legally sell my hardware thing at a profit?
b) Can I licence my bit of the software (giving credit and legal shout-outs where necessary) without prosecution or having to make it open source or anything?
c) Assuming I can do a & b, what are the legal requirements of distributing the Pi, Rasbian and software written with the Pi libraries? Do I need to clearly state that Rasbian is free and they're only paying for my bit? Do I need to list names and weblinks in the user manual?
I know Linux licencing can be quite complex as it is many components from many people all in one, but I see many other people selling Pi based hardware with software that clearly runs on Linux so it must be legal, surely?
It's just an idea at this point but I thought I should get the legal aspect sorted before I do months of work and then find out I can't sell it.
Many thanks,
Max
I'm toying with the idea of building a commercial "thing" with a Pi at it's core. It will run custom software all written by me but will still use Rasbian underneath. Although I don't plan to build an empire from this, I do want to at least cover running costs and maintain a small profit margin.
So, a couple of questions that I'm finding hard to answer by googling.
a) can I legally sell my hardware thing at a profit?
b) Can I licence my bit of the software (giving credit and legal shout-outs where necessary) without prosecution or having to make it open source or anything?
c) Assuming I can do a & b, what are the legal requirements of distributing the Pi, Rasbian and software written with the Pi libraries? Do I need to clearly state that Rasbian is free and they're only paying for my bit? Do I need to list names and weblinks in the user manual?
I know Linux licencing can be quite complex as it is many components from many people all in one, but I see many other people selling Pi based hardware with software that clearly runs on Linux so it must be legal, surely?
It's just an idea at this point but I thought I should get the legal aspect sorted before I do months of work and then find out I can't sell it.
Many thanks,
Max