Thanks for the info Dave. In terms of people redistributing my code under a GPL or non-GPL license, I am pretty clued up about the risks and consequences of that happening.
My only concern is my software will have a security flaw, and someones site will get hacked, and they will sue me. The GPL says I'm not liable, and they have to agree to this before downloading, but my guess is they could try and sue anyway as I sold a product where there was some implication that it was fit and working. I more or less have to do business in the US, as half of my business comes from there, and I am listed on directories that are accessed world wide (you just purchase the software with Paypal and download, it is more of a $50 5 sales a day, than $500 a couple of sales a week model). Thanks for the Guy Burgess contact, I will look him up. I really want to know what my risk are (from a qualified lawyer), then decide if/ what insurance I need. On Sep 11, 3:13 pm, Lightweight <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello Matt, > > Your only business liability I can see is that some one else will use > the source code that you've made available under the GPL and start > doing what you're doing. Another entity, choosing to infringe on the > GPL you've used for your code could try to use that code in their own > non-GPL product, and I believe you'd have to take action against them > to enforce the GPL... but you'd probably find that you'd get quite a > bit of assistance from the open source community and the Free Software > Foundation to mount a challenge... it'd probably also be better than > any marketing you could buy... In my opinion, you're in a much better > position than, for instance, someone selling software under a > commercial license. > > We've investigated liability insurance, and our findings: > 1. have good terms and conditions, signed before doing anything - make > sure you define the legal jurisdiction to be NZ... > 2. get standard public liability insurance (pretty cheap for $1million > coverage) > 3. don't worry about other professional indemnity because you can pay > a lot for it, and most times, the insurers refuse to pay up because > their terms are loose enough that they can generally avoid it, so it > doesn't offer much real protection. > 4. don't do business in the US - most commercial insurance you can get > in NZ specifically excludes the US thanks to its culture of > litigation. > > In our experience, insurance companies don't "get" software > development (never mind *open source* software development). > > Regarding lawyers, the person who's emerged as an expert on open > source in NZ law is Guy Burgess -http://www.burgess.co.nz/ > > Hope that helps, > > Dave > > On Aug 19, 12:43 pm, matt_thomson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I sell a bit of PHP based software (photo gallery script) that is > > licensed under the GPL. > > > I'm looking to get advice on what my liabilities are, and what > > liability insurance (if any) I need to get. > > > Does anyone know a lawyer who specializes in software licenses? 99% of > > my sales are overseas so preferably they would know a bit about > > international situations. > > > Thanks, > > > Matt. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
