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Open Source License: Overview

GK Trust^TM is free for use for non-business purposes in non-business environments. This use is governed by the GK Trust^TM open source license. Furthermore, modification and distribution of GK Trust^TM (and its portions or derivatives) are governed by the terms below. “Non-commercial purposes” means that you are not using GK Trust^TM in the course of conducting any form of business. Non-profit businesses are not excluded from this rule, but may apply for discounted commercial licenses. “Non-business environments” refers to locations that are not associated to a business in any way. Home offices and employees who ‘telecommute’ are not excluded from this rule.

GK Trust^TM is free for those developing 100% GPL software. Any application, system, tool or utility that is licensed completely under GPL can include any portion of GK Trust^TM software that is licensed under the GPL. A separate signed agreement with General Knowledge is not required; the GPL is sufficient. You are, however, encouraged to contact us for partnership opportunities.

This open source license requires you to release the complete source code for the work incorporating GK Trust^TM or portions thereof.

You can modify the GK Trust^TM source code in any manner as long as distributed derivative works incorporating GK Trust^TM or portions thereof are licensed under the GPL as well. These works must include the GPL and these license conditions. Any end user with commercial interests or distributing closed-source derivatives must purchase a commercial license

Any copies of GK Trust^TM binaries and source code will fall under the GPL license.

FOSS Exception. General Knowledge allows a license exception in order to allow Free and Open Source software ("FOSS") to include the GPL-licensed GK Trust^TM software. Based on its success, and to efficiently promote adoption of this initiative and its goals, we use the FOSS Exception created by mySQL AB for their mySQL software. Our version here.

GK can only give advice on which license is right for you. The final judgment, of course can be made only by a court of law. With that said, we recommend the commercial license to all commercial and government organizations. This frees you from the broad and strict requirements of the GPL license. To all free software enthusiasts we recommend our products under the GPL license. To non-profit organizations or an academic institutions, we recommend you publish your application as an open source / free software project using the GPL license. Thereby, you are free to use GK Trust^TM software free of charge under the GPL license. If you have strong reasons to not publish your application in accordance with the GPL, you should purchase commercial licenses. To anyone in doubt, we recommend the commercial license. It is never wrong. Thanks to our licensing model, it is also cost-effective.

Please contact us to resolve any questions or doubts you may have regarding our licensing policies and your responsibilities under them.