In article
,
tstock wrote:

Hi Paul, while you cannot sell the software directly, I believe you
could legally sell a kit including PDA, GPS, etc, and include a CD
with the software along with setup and configuration instructions as
part of the kit. You just make it clear that you are not selling the
software itself, only providing it with the PDA as a convenience, and
that it can be downloaded from (site) for free.

Actually it would be fine to sell the software itself, without anything
else to go with it. XCSoar is licensed under the GNU General Public
License which allows selling copies. What it does is force you to allow
buyers to distribute more copies without permission from you, which is a
bit of an unusual business model when it comes to selling software, and
could make it hard to make much money at it. You're also obligated to
either provide the source code along with the program or provide a
written offer to provide the source code upon request.

In short: it would be perfectly fine to charge for a ready-to-go XCSoar
package, but it'll be legal for a buyer to make a thousand copies to
give to all of his closest friends too.

If you're interested in the full mumbo jumbo about it, more information
is available he

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon