Legal use of a PHP script

Quick question : if a script is released under the GNU license, and is available for free download, am i legally allowed to charge users to use the script on my website? I am not selling it, I am charging for its intended use on a website.

for example, I download a free ecard script which is released under the GNU license. Am i legally allowed to charge membership to send ecards on my site, using this script?

thanks.

Have you read the GNU GPL?

(Moved from PHP Development to Business Help, where such legal/licensing issues should be discussed.)

My understanding is that you can charge for things like membership services and support; but you cannot charge anything for the actual permission to use the software. Though, that may not exactly be easily differentiated on such a site.

I'm not an expert but my understanding is that you cannot sell the script or modified versions of the script but you can charge for a service that utilizes the script. If your site is sending out ecards, part of the service would be the transmission of the ecard using your mail server, something that is not included in the ecard script. For example, E*Trade runs on Red Hat Linux which is GPL and E*Trade charges a commission to let people execute stock transactions. I would assume that Linux's GPL doesn't prevent E*Trade from charging commissions for services that utilize Linux GPL code. I'm in no way an expert but that makes sense to me.

I think if you want to sell the script to others, then well, thats just unethical IMO, and under the GPL you aren't allowed to do that. You also have to license it under the GPL when distributing it. You could as codergeek said charge for support of the software, or something similar, but you cannot under any circumstances charge for the actual code.

Now, if you want to use it on your site, and charge for its use, then I think you would be able to say that you're charging for the running costs of the script, and the images you use in the ecards, etc, etc.....

But IANAL, so take what I've said with a pinch of salt, and read the like jeremy posted....

[EDIT]: Ugh, yeah, what Conundrum said......

Slight correction to this: You may charge for the physical costs of the source code's reproduction (bandwidth costs, or costs of creating a CD of the code and mailing that to the user, etc.); but you cannot charge for the actual licensing itself. It's a little odd at first. In fact, you may legally charge any arbitrary amount you choose for this, with the sole restriction that the cost of the reproduction of the source code may not exceed that of the reproduction cost of the distributed binaries.

Ok, what i meant was you can't charge for the Inetelectual Property of the code itself....reproduction and distribution costs aren't covered under that (so you can buy linux CDs for example, and they can charge you for the cost of burning the CD, the CD itself, and any delivery costs, etc), I forgot to mention that....About restrictions on charging for distribution I have no idea about, so when you say What is 'the reproduction cost of the distributed binaries'?

"Have you read the GNU GPL?"

Yes I have, but I still want to be sure just incase I misread. Better safe than sorry.

Yes, I am not selling the script. I am just selling a membership to use this script on my website.

But im still confused on whether its allowed for profit.

Basically, you can charge any arbitrary amount for the physical transfer of the software and its source code (costs which may include things ike bandwidth, or the cost of creating CDs with all the source code and binaries on them, for example). For example, you could legally charge charge $10,000 for such a binary CD; but if you did that you could only legally charge a maximum of $10,000 for the cost of the CD containing the sources. Hope that helps.

This sounds very strange to me. In most cases people sell memberships to services they create that use a script, not selling membership to use a GPL script directly. What do you mean by that?
If you're very concerned about this you can:

• Contact GNU GPL at gnu@gnu.org

• Contact the copyright owner of the PHP script

what if you were the creater of the program, and you wanted to charge.. is there a particular license for this? or can you create it your self? anyone has any example?

p.s: Decided to post it here.. since the thread speaces about it (sorta ).