Can I burn Open Office to a CD and sell the CD

[JacobRogers]

Can I burn the .exe and .dmg files of Open Office to a CD and then sell the CDs for a dollar to people? Not really trying to make a profit just trying to cover my cost and trouble.

As far as I can see, it's legal right?

[Kernel Sanders]

Absolutely.

[Foster Grant]

There are companies repackaging OO as an Office alternative suite and selling it for $49.95 at your nearby Office Depot/OfficeMax/Staples/W.B. Mason, so it's legal. Pity the fool who pays $50 for something they can download free, though.

I have more blank CD-Rs than I know what to do with, so I just give 'em away. :lol:

[Joeb454]

I think if they are repackaging it, chances are that they've modified it ever so slightly, so it's not actually OpenOffice, but it's <your shop name here> Office :)

[quinnten83]

maybe they should start releasing it under a creative commons license.
I believe it would then be illegal to have it repackaged and sold commercially.

Licenses make head hurt!

[init1]

Yes, it's open source so there's no problem with that. Even if you did make profit from selling the CDs, it would still be legal

[CaptainCabinet]

Can I burn the .exe and .dmg files of Open Office to a CD and then sell the CDs for a dollar to people? Not really trying to make a profit just trying to cover my cost and trouble.

As far as I can see, it's legal right?

It's perfectly fine and legal to sell free software. Richard Stallman says it is anyway.

[az]

maybe they should start releasing it under a creative commons license.
I believe it would then be illegal to have it repackaged and sold commercially.

Licenses make head hurt!

Let me clear things up a little, since you have it backwards.

The software freedom movement has been around for twenty years; it is a lot more mature than the Free Culture (Creative Commons licenses) movement. The free software movement started out to protect the user's rights to not lose control over their computer.

To a computer scientist, that obviously means getting access to the source code and being able to use it, modify it and redistribute it. To a non-computer-scientist, this is not so obvious, so the vast majority of people are willing to give away their rights to control their own computer.

The software freedom movement started out with a definition of software freedom. Licenses are defined as free if they meet the criteria set out by that definition; (i.e. you can use the software for any purpose, you can obtain the source, you can modify it and then pass it along)

The Free Culture movement started out to protect the creator of content, and not the end-user. The free culture movement also started off without a proper definition of what free content is. As such, unfortunately, most of the CC-licensed work out there is under a less-than-free "non-commercial" license. That clause removes the end-user's ability to fully interface with the content and as such reduces the effectiveness of CC.

You can mix and match clauses with CC so a CC-BY-SA is equivalent to the GPL, more or less. That is, it doesn't have the non-commercial clause.

The fact is, most people who seem to be using CC today completely miss the point. They use NC (non-commercial) in the hopes that one day they will sign a recording contract and get onto the bandwagon that CC licensing is there to help you do without in the first place!

Also, CC licensing is designed for cultural works, not software. Check out their FAQ on the topic.

[smoker]

Can I burn the .exe and .dmg files of Open Office to a CD and then sell the CDs for a dollar to people? Not really trying to make a profit just trying to cover my cost and trouble.

As far as I can see, it's legal right?

why don't you just give them the link!
http://www.openoffice.org/

saves you and them a lot of hassle:)

[Joeb454]

If the person doesn't have a high-speed 'net connection - then what.

If I remember rightly, the OpenOffice image is around 230-250Mb, which is quite a lot to download on a 56k dial-up connection :p

[warbread]

Blech. Who would want to download OO, let alone pay for it? I recently had to type up a paper complete with graphs. Between the hidden options, buggy interface and random crashes, I think I would have been more productive if I had just beat my face with a hammer.

[drascus]

yeah totally. go for it. I think it might be nice if you donate some of that money back to Ooo.org Project they deserve their credit. But yeah if you are taking your time to burn CD's have packaging and everything and people will pay then by all means do it.

[drascus]

Between the hidden options, buggy interface and random crashes, I think I would have been more productive if I had just beat my face with a hammer.

From what I understand many interface issues and stability issues have been fixed for version 3.0. I have seen it called the MS word killer in many Tech blogs. Of course Anyone can get the source code and try to fix the bugs for themselves and modify the interface to make it more friendly. Not all together practical but definitely possible.

[smoker]

If the person doesn't have a high-speed 'net connection - then what.

If I remember rightly, the OpenOffice image is around 230-250Mb, which is quite a lot to download on a 56k dial-up connection :p

you can order a cd from the website:
http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/index.html#cdrom

for the OP, from the link above:


Would you like to Be a Distributor too? We welcome anyone who would like to distribute OpenOffice.org in their local community. For further information,

[retrow]

yeah totally. go for it. I think it might be nice if you donate some of that money back to Ooo.orgThats precisely what I was gonna say. You can sell the CDs for $2 instead of $1,and donate a part of it back to the Open office project. I think they need any and every kind of help and support anyone can provide.

[daverich]

same thing happens to Audacity, an open source audio editing program.

Folks sell it on ebay.

It doesn't really sit right with me, but then the benefits of open source faaar outweigh the problems of folks making jerks of themselves.

Kind regards

Dave Rich