Open Source Licensing for .Net Portal Frameworks

September 10th, 2007

I am currently casting about for at open source web portal frameworks written in .Net. I would like my first concern to be the architecture of the UI plug-in modules, security providers, and data models. Unfortunately, it looks like my first concern must first be the license model of the software. To be fair, I am looking to embed this software in a for-profit, redistributable, and re-branded application.

There is actually very little to complain about with free software even if it is free like a puppy.

So, what license is the most conducive to an embedding scenario? I don’t know. I will have to get someone in legal to start to plow through these things, I think. Any feedback on your experiences would be most appreciated.

Portal Framework License Information
DotNetNuke FreeBSD
Rainbow Portal GNU General Public License (GPL)
Mojo Common Public License (CPL)
Umbraco MIT License

Any other frameworks you suggest, by the way?

David Starr

  • http://blechie.com/wpierce/ Bill Pierce
  • http://umbraco.org Hartvig

    BSD and MIT style licenses are best for your purpose – GPL and derived license styles are more or less incompatible.

    But always remember to check the whole license. In umbraco, the framework is licensed under MIT, but the content management UI is not open source but freeware. The license clearly states that you’re NOT allowed to re-brand and distribute the UI modified without a commercial license and as such umbraco is excluded:
    http://umbraco.org/license

    Hope this helps and good luck!

    Niels / umbraco

  • http://elegantcode.com David Starr

    Thank you for the clarification. Good one :)

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