Kicad - License and derivatives

Community
1

Hi everyone,
My main question is: Are we legally allowed to commercially redistribute derivatives using the kicad source code?

I have been modifying the Kicad source code for a research project and am considering the possibility of (in the future) selling my application, which will include the modified Kicad source code as the basis of the GUI. Is this allowed under the terms and agreements of Kicad?

I understand that Kicad follows the GNU V3 open source agreement, which does state that one can “convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License” but when I went on the Kicad website, I also saw the information for the Creative Commons License, which says that “ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.”

Thank you!

2

KiCAD is licensed under the AGPL-3 and just like the GPL, you are free to sell a binary version, as long as you make available the source code used to build what is provided.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLCommercially

1 Like
3

Thank you. So to be clear, this means that all source code, including my own research which is a separate library, must be available to the public?

4

You may never get a satisfactory answer to a legal question here.

I’m pretty sure just the altered Kicad code would be subject to source code availability here.

1 Like
5

It depends. Does your library link against any part of kicad code? If yes, then your library must also be release under GPL or compatible license
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#IfLibraryIsGPL

1 Like
6

At least, not legally binding. But the licence of KiCad (in practice the same as GPL3) is well known, and you can find tons of information (and opinions) about it. So it’s safe to say that if your binary code is linked to KiCad binary code, your code must be licenced under a GPL3 compatible licence, meaning that you must publish and share your source code.

However, a short and correct answer to your actual question is still “yes”. You can distribute it commercially. That’s allowed by GPL. But that doesn’t take away the fact that you still to have publish your source code. They are two different things.

Read carefully - there’s information about documentation, component libraries etc. there. You must look under the “program” section.

3 Likes
7

Depends on how this library interacts or links to the main executable. this is the difference between the GPL and the LGPL.
A library released under the GPL which is then used/linked by proprietary software means the entire software is GPL and all code must be made available
A library released under the LGPL which is then used/linked by proprietary software means the software can stay closed BUT the sourcecode for the library must be made available.

This is moot because in this instance the application (KiCAD) is AGPL-3 and thus all derived work would be subject to the same license. Plugins are different and if you really want to provide some proprietary “enhancement” this is the simplest approach

The real question is, why not contribute back? there is ~ 1.5million lines in the main KiCAD tarball (make, cpp, headers, readme) and this doesn’t include the component files. All of this has been contributed by the community in some way.

2 Likes
8

Thank you everyone for your answers. I read more on the GPL terms and conditions and so from what I understand from here and there, any source code in a library file linked to the software under the GPL (in this case KiCad) must be made available, which makes complete sense.
Thank you.

9

That would be wonderful, however, the application I am writing is unrelated to engineering, pcb design or circuits.

10

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.