Licensing
License
OpenRate has a dual licensing model, which uses both GPL for End Users and the OpenRate Proprietary License for Systems Integrators/Resellers. No matter which license you have, the overall business benefit of OpenRate is a dramatically lower total cost of ownership.
The guiding business principle of OpenRate is one of fair exchange, or Quid pro Quo ("something for something"). From a licensing perspective, we have two different products depending on usage and distribution, though technically they have the same source code. Our licensing options include:
- The Commercial License, which allows you to provide commercial software licenses to your customers or distribute applications or containing OpenRate. This is for organizations that do not want to release the source code for their applications as open source / free software and / or who do not want to display the OpenRate logo and trademark. For more detail on the Commercial non-GPL License, click here to contact us.
- For End Users developing applications for use in their own organisation, we offer the Open Source License (GPL) allows you to develop applications in the full security of the GPL scheme. This license is not available for Systems Integrators or Resellers. We base our interpretation of the GPL on the Free Software Foundation's Frequently Asked Questions. However, under this license, you have the obligation to feed back your work based on OpenRate
Licensing questions can submitted online for our advice, and we encourage you to refer to the Free Software Foundation or a lawyer as appropriate.
Commercially licensed customers get commercially supported product with assurances from Tiger Shore Management Limited. Commercially licensed users are also free from the requirement of making their own application open source. For OEM's, ISVs, corporate, and government users, a commercial license is the proper solution because it provides you with assurance from the vendor and releases you from the strict requirements of the GPL license.
Rationale
The OpenRate license is designed to be as liberal as possible without sacrificing the architectural vision that we have developed over many years of working at the leading edge of high performance billing systems. We want you to be able to use OpenRate in your organisation to deal with your problems, with the security that you can count on us when you need additional help, but with the liberty to do your business in the way you need, and with the flexibility and empowerment given to you by an Open Source platform.
You'll never be left out on your own. If and when you need help, we can offer you consulting, outsourcing and impementation services on a purely optional basis. If you need our help, you can get it. If you don't you can perform all of the work with your own resources, using your own methodologies and skills.
We don't rely on traditional "lock in" tactics used by traditional software companies. Once you have a license to OpenRate, you receive the full source code. We have tried to create the most open and fair license we could, with the minimum in restriction that we could possibly make, while still ensuring that OpenRate does not lose its way or fall into chaos or mis-use.
If you require modifications to the license, or clarification of any of the clauses, please do not hesitate to contact us. We do not intend the license to hinder or block anything, so if there is something that is not clear, we're more concerned in getting the software out there rather than play at being lawyers. Here is what we are trying to do with the license:
- Give you the possibility to do what you need to do with OpenRate. We do not make restriction on when, how, with whom, how often or any other aspect of system building in the license.
- Give you the assurance that the OpenRate license will remain as free in the future as it is now.
- Maintain a level of governance over the core product, to ensure that it does not take a direction that is "inappropriate" for the platform. By inappropriate, we mean that customisations very specific to a certain business segment or application should not automatically become core software. Note, however, that the OpenRate architecture allows you very easily to "derive" modules by copying them and changing aspects of the copy so that this control should not have a negative effect on your work.
- Ensure that the OpenRate community has access to a level of expertise that will ensure implementation success, meaning that neither Systems Integrators nor end users need to feel that they are left out in the cold.
- Build a user community that is known and defined and which can actively participate in discussion, while allowing a level of segmentation of the user base so that SIs can happily deal with their customers without fear of "grab tactics"
- Create a software ecosystem in which the OpenRate team and licensees can earn a living, while giving SIs and end users maximum freedom and flexibility to accommodate their business model.
Costs
You can find the license costs for OpenRate in the OpenRate license fee price list.