Selling a Pi and software licencing issues

[MrMaxP]

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

[jamesh]

a) Yes.
b) Yes, providing you use no libraries that use a copy left licence (GPL2) i.e. by using them you must make your own source open.
c) You will need to provide a link or information on how to download and build all the GPL2/Open Source parts of the Linux you use.

So in effect, you can use open source software as long as you provide the open source (or link to it) and you can keep your own source private if you want to, by avoiding libraries or code that have GPL or similar licences.

[MrMaxP]

That's excellent, thanks. I'll make sure I check everything I use.

I'd better get to work!

[ghans]

As the GPL is one of the more restrictive licenses in a
commercial sense and the most important for Linux in general ,
i guess you might want to check the FAQ of the Free Software
Foundation :

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

ghans