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Originally Posted by shepdog
Mazer due to the types of license used in OpenSource such as the GPL, MIT and several others it would make basing a company based around it very difficult.
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This is a common misconception. Microsoft legally ripped a lot of code from the BSDs without paying or distributing source code. You might want to consider the BSD license yourself. Basically it allows you to do whatever you want with the code, as long as you give credit where credit is due.
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Selling Free Software:
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Except for one special situation, the GNU General Public License (20k characters) (GNU GPL) has no requirements about how much you can charge for distributing a copy of free software. You can charge nothing, a penny, a dollar, or a billion dollars. It's up to you, and the marketplace, so don't complain to us if nobody wants to pay a billion dollars for a copy.
The one exception is in the case where binaries are distributed without the corresponding complete source code. Those who do this are required by the GNU GPL to provide source code on subsequent request. Without a limit on the fee for the source code, they would be able set a fee too large for anyone to pay--such as a billion dollars--and thus pretend to release source code while in truth concealing it. So in this case we have to limit the fee for source, to ensure the user's freedom. In ordinary situations, however, there is no such justification for limiting distribution fees, so we do not limit them.
Sometimes companies whose activities cross the line of what the GNU GPL permits plead for permission, saying that they "won't charge money for the GNU software'' or such like. They don't get anywhere this way. Free software is about freedom, and enforcing the GPL is defending freedom. When we defend users' freedom, we are not distracted by side issues such as how much of a distribution fee is charged. Freedom is the issue, the whole issue, and the only issue.
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The GPL is not as restrictive as all the FUD-mongers and MS Fanboys would like you to believe.
