Module Licensing | calguy1000.com

Licenses are a necessary evil.   We wish we wouldn't need them, but we do. So I thought I'd talk about how I license my modules for CMS Made Simple, and why I decided to do it that way.

As you probably already know, CMS Made Simple is licensed using the GPL... that means it's free... and also, because it's a scripted language, all of the modules that run with it are also subject to the GPL.  Im not going to get into the nitty gritty of the problems with the GPL and scripted languages, vs. compiled languages and shared libraries.... it's a complex issue.

CMS Made Simple is also available under a private license... for a fee... after paying that fee to our benevolent dictator you can remove all copyright notices from the code, and any reference to CMS Made Simple for one website.   This allows you to use CMS Made Simple commercially (though I don't really see the advantage to this, but somebody may enlighten me).

Therefore, all of my modules are licensed under the GPL.  However, due to some issues that were discussed on the forum in the past, I added a caveat.   In order to use my modules, you must be using a GPL version of CMS Made Simple... which means that even though you paid Ted for the private CMSMS license for your site.... you can't use my modules.  And you must display clearly and obviously in the admin section to your site that your site is powered by CMS Made Simple.

Here's the exact text of my exception to the GPL:

However, as a special exception to the GPL, this software is distributed
as an addon module to CMS Made Simple.  You may not use this software
in any Non GPL version of CMS Made simple, or in any version of CMS
Made simple that does not indicate clearly and obviously in its admin
section that the site was built with CMS Made simple.

This exception has nothing to do with selling free code, or modifying my code, or not giving me credit.  This is to hopefully stop some people from trying to be unscrupulous when developing websites using CMSMS whilst removing all obvious references to cms made simple, and hiding the fact that it is open source software from their customer.

So, I know I have an extensive list of modules... and not all of them have had the copyright notices updated in all files.... but most of them do now have this exception... and even if they don't.... you now know the spirit of the license.

You can use my modules as much as you want in as many websites as you want, as long as you follow by the rules of the GPL AND give credit to CMS Made Simple clearly and obviously in the admin section of your site.... This is there by default in the admin footer.... so as long as you don't remove that... you're golden.   You are of course free to make it even more obvious that you chose CMS Made Simple for your customers website.