VSCP & Friends is licensed under tree different licenses.

• Commercial users can buy a license from eurosource.
• Non commercial users can use the GPL version.
• Both commercial and non-commercial users can use the LGPL code such as libraries and firmware code.

As of February 2006, VSCP & Friends is released under a modified version of the well known GNU General Public License (GPL), now making it an official GPL-compatible Free Software License. An exception clause has been added to the VSCP & Friends license which limits the circumstances in which the license applies to other code when used in conjunction with VSCP & Friends. The exception clause is as follows:

As a special exception, if other files instantiate templates or use macros
or inline functions from this file, or you compile this file and link it
with other works to produce a work based on this file, this file does not
by itself cause the resulting work to be covered by the GNU General Public
License. However the source code for this file must still be made
available in accordance with section (3) of the GNU General Public
License.

This exception does not invalidate any other reasons why a work based on this file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.

The goal of the license is to serve the VSCP & Friends user community as a whole. It allows all VSCP & Friends users to develop products without paying anything, no matter how many developers are working on the product or how many units will be shipped. The license also guarantees that the VSCP & Friends source code will always be freely available. This applies not only to the core VSCP & Friends code itself but also to any changes that anybody makes to the core. In particular, it should prevent any company or individual contributing code to the system and then later claiming that all VSCP & Friends users are now guilty of copyright or patent infringements and have to pay royalties. It should also prevent any company from making some small improvements, calling the result a completely new system, and releasing this under a new and less generous license.

The license does not require users to release the source code of any applications that are developed with VSCP & Friends. However, if anybody makes any changes to code covered by the VSCP & Friends license, or writes new files derived in any way from VSCP & Friends code, then we believe that the entire user community should have the opportunity to benefit from this. The license stipulates that these changes must be made available in source code form to all recipients of binaries based on the modified code, either by including the sources along with the binaries you deliver (or with any device containing such binaries) or with a written offer to supply the source code to the general public for three years. It is perhaps most practical for VSCP & Friends developers to make the source code available online and inform those who are receiving binaries containing VSCP & Friends code, and probably also the VSCP & Friends maintainers, about the location of the code. See the full text of the GPL for the most authoritative definition of the obligations.

Although it is not strictly necessary to contribute the modified code back to the VSCP & Friends open source project, we are always pleased to receive code contributions and hope that developers will also be keen to give back in return for what they received from the VSCP & Friends project completely free of charge. The VSCP & Friends maintainers are responsible for deciding whether such contributions should be applied to the public repository. In addition, a copyright assignment is required for any significant changes to the core VSCP & Friends packages.

The result is a royalty-free system with minimal obligations on the part of application developers. This has resulted in the rapid uptake of VSCP & Friends. At the same time, VSCP & Friends is fully open source with all the benefits that implies in terms of quality and innovation. We believe that this is a winning combination.

You have the right to incorporate any code of VSCP & Friends in your own application and resell it without any need to re-share any code.

The commercial licenses is available here http://www.eurosource.se/catalog/index.php/cPath/69.

The following queries provide some clarification as to the implications of the VSCP & Friends license. They do not constitute part of the legal meaning of the license.

Q. What is the effect of the VSCP & Friends license?

A. In the simplest terms, when you distribute anything containing VSCP & Friends code, you must make the source code to VSCP & Friends available under the terms of the GPL.

Q. What if I make changes to VSCP & Friends or write new code based on VSCP & Friends code?

A. Then you must make those changes available as well.

Q. Do I have to distribute the source code to my application? Isn't the GPL “viral”?

A. You do not have to distribute any code under the terms of the GPL other than VSCP & Friends code or code derived from VSCP & Friends. For example, if you write a port based on copying an existing VSCP & Friends in any way, you must make the source code available with the binary. However you would not need to make available any other code, such as the code of a wholly separate application linked with VSCP & Friends.

 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 
 This file is part of the VSCP (http://can.sourceforge.net) 
 
 Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Ake Hedman, eurosource, <akhe@eurosource.se>
 
 This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this file see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
 the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
 Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 
 As a special exception, if other files instantiate templates or use macros
 or inline functions from this file, or you compile this file and link it
 with other works to produce a work based on this file, this file does not
 by itself cause the resulting work to be covered by the GNU General Public
 License. However the source code for this file must still be made available
 in accordance with section (3) of the GNU General Public License.
 
 This exception does not invalidate any other reasons why a work based on
 this file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.
 
 Alternative licenses for VSCP & Friends may be arranged by contacting 
 eurosource at info@eurosource.se, http://www.eurosource.se