Jian wrote:
Since OpenSC is an open souce project, and I have never work with an
open source project, there are many things i need to know.
first of all, is it allowed to "sell" hardware with OpenSC (as PKCS#11)?
I'm not a lawyer, so if in doubt, you better ask your lawyer.
OpenSC is licensed under LGPL license and as long as you adhere to
the license, you can include it in hardware.
for example lots and lots of hardware sold like wlan routers is these
days build upon linux, and thus includes a lot of software under lgpl
and gpl license.
2, I need to use some code that not allowed to publish, is it possible
to protect these code? How?
create your own fork of opensc and add a new driver for your card.
rename this copy of opensc, so people know it is something you modified.
publish the result - but with the source for your new driver left out.
all other code muste be included as source (as you didn't change it
or changed existing files written by us). include the binary file of
your driver, so people can recompile everything else and enhance the
rest while still use your binary only module.
3. If i have to publish all the code, how can i prevent it from
commercial using?
if your driver is written from scratch you can put it under whatever
license you want - it only has to be compatible with opensc and the
applications using opensc.
you could for example disallow re-distribution withour being paid. that
way you can sell hardware based on open source software, but keep some
small part to yourself, and even people who create a similar hardware
can't use that part of the software you wrote.
but at the same time keep in mind, that reverse engineering is simple
and legal. writing drivers for smart cards isn't that hard as you can
see with that many drivers in opensc. so if you create an extended
version and it becomes popular, it would be easy for someone to write
a module that does the same as your extension, but is as open source.
so you might as well not spend a huge amount on time and energy on
creating some proprietory private binary only commercial extension to
opensc, but instead create some open source extension and earn money
with support, contracts or selling your hardware. might be a lot easier.
Regards, Andreas
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